They used pepper spray, a taser, and a dog to arrest a guy on a warrant for someone else, which led to two Alaska State Troopers being charged with misdemeanor assault, the government said Thursday.
Commissioner of the Alaska Department of Public Safety James Cockrell said at a news conference Thursday that Sgt. Joseph Miller and dog handler Jason Woodruff have both been charged with fourth-degree assault for the event on May 24.
“I’ve worked for this company for 33 years, and I’ve never seen an Alaska State Trooper do anything like this,” Cockrell said. “The person who was in that car and went to the hospital was seriously hurt because of what they did.”
The cops are set to be arraigned on September 10.
Authorities say that two state cops broke out of a man’s car’s back window, pepper sprayed him, shocked him with a taser, and told a police dog to bite him over and over while they tried to arrest him. Police didn’t know they had arrested the cousin of the man they were looking for until they took him to the hospital to get treated. Their last names were the same.
At first, the two cops were called to Soldotna, which is on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula and southwest of Anchorage. A car was parked in a public right of way. Cockrell said that the car was registered to a man who had a misdemeanor warrant out for his arrest.
After what happened, Miller and Woodruff were put on administrative leave, and Cockrell says the dog is no longer being used for work. CNN hasn’t been able to find out if Miller and Woodruff have appointed lawyers.
A news release from Alaska’s Department of Public Safety says that the troopers tried to talk to a guy who was “hidden in the rear of the vehicle” and told him to get out of the car. The news report said he denied having a warrant out for his arrest and refused to get out of the car.
A new statement says that Miller, who is 49 years old, then broke the car’s back window and sprayed pepper spray inside. At the news conference, Public Safety Commissioner Cockrell said, “There should have been more questions asked before we broke the window and dragged him out of his car.”
The police tried to arrest the man as he got out of the car, but Miller put his foot on his head, “pushing it into the ground covered in broken glass,” according to the news release. He began to bleed from the “face or head,” Cockrell said.
The news statement also says that Miller used a Taser more than once.
Then, Woodruff, 42, let go of his dog and “continued to order the K9 to bite the man,” even though the man seemed to be doing what the cops told him to do.
After some time, the man was handcuffed, given first aid, and taken to a hospital.
That’s when the police realized he wasn’t the person they were looking for.
Documents obtained by The Associated Press show that the troopers thought they were dealing with a guy who had an outstanding warrant, but it turned out to be his cousin who was being pepper-sprayed and attacked by a dog.
The man was badly hurt and had to have surgery to fix cuts in his muscles, according to The Associated Press.
It says in the charging document against the two cops that the charges against the man who was wrongfully arrested were later dropped.
“When I looked back at this video, I was sickened by what I saw,” Cockrell said. The police have said they won’t show all of the body camera footage until the investigation is over.
After what happened, Miller and Woodruff were put on administrative leave, and Cockrell says the dog is no longer being used for work.
“I want to be clear: these two people’s actions are not acceptable to me. They are not in line with our training and policy, and I know that the Alaskans we serve do not accept them either,” Cockrell said in the news release.