Posted on 10/08/2009 12:28:41 AM PDT by The Magical Mischief Tour
MURFREESBORO, Tenn. - Kristin Powell was in the hospital for three days after a K9 officer bit into her thigh. The teenager said the circumstances that led to the attack still confuse her.
Kristin had just finished a soccer game, and that was when she saw the K9 officer locked up in a gated area.
She went over and asked a few questions about the German Sheppard, and then seconds later the dog came after her.
"His teeth went like that," said Kristin. "I looked and I saw him coming straight towards me."
Kristin remembered every detail from September 3.
"It would not let go and just kept yanking it," said Kristin.
The girl's attacker wasn't your typical neighborhood dog; it was a Murfreesboro K9 officer.
"He can go out there and run around without being held tight, or on a leash the whole time," said Powell's attorney Brad Hornsby.
Hornsby said the dog's handler brought him to this fenced in area next to Murfreesboro's Central Middle School to take a break.
"Apparently the dog got through that or jumped over the top - one of the two, pretty easy for a dog to get out of that area," said Hornsby.
Officer Ryan Holobaugh quickly pulled Brack off of Kristin, but the dog had already done significant damage.
"This is still numb, but you can see where the muscle got it," said Kristin.
Medics rushed Kristin to Vanderbilt that day where she underwent two hours of surgeries to repair her thigh muscle, something her mom wasn't sure could be done.
"I was like, how are they going to put this girl's leg back together, how they going to do that," said mother Weslynn Powell.
This teenager is still confused why the dog decided to chase her after a soccer game, where dozens of kids were hanging around.
"I didn't know what I did, I thought I did something bad or something," said Kristin.
Officer Holobaugh has reached out to Kristin since the attack. He even invited her over to see the dog, on friendlier terms. The girl's fine with Brack now, but still scared of dogs.
The Powell's have yet to file a lawsuit against Murfreesboro, and hope not to. Their attorney just wants the city to pay for the girl's medical bills and her pain and suffering.
Officer Holobaugh did receive a verbal reprimand for letting the dog loose in an area not approved by the city. Both he and Brack have since returned to work.
Title was messed up, it made it sound as if the Police Officer attacked the girl.
They’re being awfully nice about it, but I hope they remember the statute of limitations for bringing a personal injury lawsuit. If the city does not dish up a suitable wad of dough right off the bat, YES THEY SHOULD SUE AND IT IS A DUTY TO THEIR COUNTRY!
That’s OK. The dog IS a K9 officer.
Odd that the sheppard would attack like that - maybe the girl was giving off a scent that initiated the attack.
I’ve seen big cats do that - go after someone because of their odor, or scent.
Murfreesboro PD has had some bad press lately, lots of cops down their finding their way into the news for not so good things...
Don’t ever run from a police dog. They think it is part of their training. Stand very still. That said. Very poor training.
My first thought was that she made contact with the handler from the dogs point of view, because he attacked immediately after that. Maybe it's a combination of both, or maybe it's something else entirely...
I'm curious myself.
The designation of police dogs as “officers” is ridiculous. They are trained animals used as potentially deadly tools - nothing more or less. When cops shoot your dog, it’s disposable property they have a “right” to destroy if they “feel” threatened by it in the least. When a police dog chomps on a teenage girl, there isn’t the slightest thought of putting it down, or arresting the (human) officer for negligence with a deadly weapon.
Bah.
“Kristin had just finished a soccer game, and that was when she saw the K9 officer locked up in a gated area.
She went over and asked a few questions about the German Sheppard, and then seconds later the dog came after her.”
How could the dog come after her if he was in a locked up area?
I am very curious.
They haven’t, at the least, required the dog to have a full re-certification? I wonder if some under the counter payola has been going on.
It sounded as though the dog leaped out of an insufficiently high pen. Zoos have had this problem happen with things like uncovered tiger cages.
Possibly, the curious girl did touch the handler. But the handler should know of this danger and be in control of the dog at all times so that it does not behave this way. (It is useful to have the dog initiate protection of the handler if the handler has been disabled.)
I ain’t no English major, but...
If this is the story, as written, the news writer need to be fired. I still don’t know if a cop bit the girl. Or, did a K9 dog get loose and attack?
Perhaps Nashville’s Channel 5 editors are in Bangalore, India...
Maybe the dog is in charge, does assignments or something.
Or maybe it’s the usual disconnect between language and reality due to gooberment skools and the usual needs of state bureaucracies.
I do not subscribe to the fiction that a police dog is a “canine officer”. It’s a dog. Maybe a well-trained dog, but it’s still a dog.
Hang a badge on it’s collar, give it a police rank, hell salute it if you want to — IT’S STILL A DOG.
I want to know why the (human) officer had the dog there in the first place... why the dog was off the leash and why he isn’t charged with the attack on the girl as he is supposed to be in control of the dog. The girl was hospitalized for 3 days after he thigh was ripped up... you can die very quickly from an arterial wound. SHE NEEDS TO SUE FOR A LARGE AMOUNT.
I had a neighbor (drug dealer with Rottweilers) claim my dogs were “aggressive” and “on the loose” ,, also called them “pit bulls” when they knew them to be Boxers.. (po’d at me for nagging the police into patrolling enough to hurt their drug business).. When the cops showed up at my door they had their sidearms unholstered and they were itching to shoot my dogs..
I will not back down from a single dog ,police “officer K9” or not, have found that the most sure way to kill a large dog (assuming you are unarmed) is to jam something in it’s throat , your hand will work but a stick or something would be better ,,, followed by falling on it HARD to immobilize and crush it’s ribcage.
Agree completely.
Isn’t it cute the way this story refers to the dog as a “canine officer” and the police officer as a “dog handler”?
Talk about role reversal. It makes it sound like the dog is the cop and the cop is just there to serve the dog.
Totally screwed up in my not so humble opinion.
This was a bit of nomenclatural juggling to provide one more thing to slug miscreants with. It is pretty much SOP now across the country to charge a person who does something to one of these dogs with the same crime that would be incurred if the act had been done to a police officer. The only exception is that the death penalty is never sought for killing a dog.
That may be the case, but I do not have to like it and I don’t.
The main problem with suing is that it is usually very slow, and medical services providers will not wait on your cash flow problem. Bankruptcy can occur with all its repercussions (among them, the difficulty in getting a job when your credit rating goes in the toilet). Maybe the department promised a quick settlement. We shall see!
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