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Even after realizing they had detained the wrong person, police in Henderson Nevada released a K9 into his car where his 17 month old daughter was. By the time they managed to stop the dog, it had already bitten the infant, leaving her with nine wounds on her right arm.

The incident, which actually happened on January 30th of this year, came to light after the Henderson Police Department agreed to force Nevada taxpayers to pay the victim’s family $13,000 to make up for their reckless actions. In addition, police released the dash cam videos of the incident after the settlement announcement.

Although the police at the scene had already determined they had the wrong person before the K9 officer arrived, confusion over the fact that the girl’s father didn’t speak English is being used as the excuse for why the dog was released. In reality, it was a lack of communication between those officers that resulted in an innocent toddler being mauled by a vicious dog for no reason whatsoever.

Via the Las Vegas Review Journal:

“My baby,” Arturo Arenas-Alvarez said in halting English as a Henderson police K9 ran toward his sport utility vehicle, which sat nearby in a parking lot. “I’ve got my baby.” “There’s an infant in that car! There’s an infant in that car!” an officer yelled to his colleagues. It was too late. The Belgian Malinois had already gone into the SUV and bitten Arenas-Alvarez’s 17-month-old daughter, Ayleen, on the right arm… Police videos of the Jan. 30 incident show officers who ordered a confused Arenas-Alvarez out of his vehicle quickly concluded he wasn’t the robbery suspect they were trying to find. But then Sgt. James Mitchell, who had arrived on the scene seconds earlier, got out of his cruiser and released his dog. In a recent interview, Police Chief Patrick Moers said Mitchell should have communicated better with fellow officers. “In my opinion, the dog was used too fast,” the chief said.

Chief Moers assured everyone that an “investigation” was conducted, although no policy changes would be made as a result. Equally unsurprisingly, Sgt. Mitchell, who released his dog on an innocent baby within 90 seconds of arriving at the scene, was not punished in any way.

Sergeant Mitchell for his part expressed relief that the dog had a soul after regaling the other officers with a story of how the last person mauled by his dog had nothing but bone left on their arm. It was also pointed out that they gave the little girl a teddy bear to make up for their dog violently attacking her. The fact that they actually had no reason to search the car of a person they had already determined wasn’t a suspect was conveniently left out.

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