Police have called the allegations against the department baseless.
(WFIU/WTIU News)
Authorities have released additional police video footage and 911 audio in the May arrest of a Black northwestern Indiana man who was mauled by a police dog while being arrested for suspected battery.
A special prosecutor and the state police are investigating allegations that three Lafayette police officers used excessive force when arresting Richard Bailey Jr., who was seriously injured.
Bailey’s lawyers previously released some police video of the dog attack and the moments leading up to it in which officers tell Bailey to get off a moped and warn him that they will use a K-9 unit if he doesn’t comply.
“We have prepared this video in response to public concern and media representation that do not include all the facts and circumstances,” Chief Patrick Flannelly said in a video preceding the newly released footage.
In the 911 audio, a caller alleges that a man who had been drinking attacked three people before leaving on a moped. The newly released police footage shows an officer remark to Bailey he’s “clearly intoxicated” after Bailey seems to have trouble speaking and stopping the moped.
Bailey’s attorneys called the use of the dog, which mauled Bailey’s neck for 30 seconds, “extraordinarily violent” and said the three white officers used excessive force because Bailey is Black, according to the Journal & Courier. They said the 46-year-old Bailey spent days in a medically-induced coma after the attack and could have died.
Attorneys Swaray Conteh and Fatima Johnson told the newspaper that the 911 call doesn’t offer a complete story of what happened in the house before police arrived.
“What the 911 tape failed to mention is that Mr. Bailey was attacked with a knife, had a gun pointed at him, and yet still managed to inflict less damage to his attackers than the police did to him,” said Elayne Rivers, a spokeswoman for Johnson’s law firm.
Police have called the allegations against the department baseless.
“We will not provide commentary on specific investigative activities, only those that guide our officers’ actions in response to resistance,” Flannelly said, citing an ongoing investigation.
