ALPHARETTA, Ga. — Alpharetta police have cleared officers of any wrongdoing in the arrest of a man who was attacked by a police dog.
But the man who was arrested said he did nothing wrong, and shouldn’t have been arrested and attacked in the first place.
Travis Moya was arrested in July after family members called 911 to report he was having a mental health crisis. Graphic body camera video shows the moments a K-9 officer latched on to Moya’s arm and shoulder as police were trying to handcuff him.
Police said Moya was arrested for resisting arrest. He was charged with felony obstruction of officers.
Channel 2′s Steve Gehlbach was at Alpharetta Police headquarters where he spoke to Moya’s lawyers, who want the case dismissed. Attorney L. Chris Stewart said Moya never resisted arrest and wasn’t violent.
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“You have him restrained. He’s not fighting you,” attorney L. Chris Stewart said. “There was no action of trying to fight. It’s absolutely ridiculous to put that in a police report.”
Stewart said that police didn’t have justification to arrest Moya in the first place.
Moya’s stepson initially called 911 to report that Moya was acting wild, growling, grunting and punching things inside the house. Family members said his behavior was strange, but he wasn’t being threatening or violent.
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When police arrived, one officer claimed that Moya swung at them and was actively resisting as officers tried to keep him from going back inside the home.
That’s when three other officers tried to handcuff him and took him to the ground face-down.
Body camera video shows the moments a K9 officer latched on to Moya for about 45 seconds before officers were able to cuff him. Moya sustained injuries to his arm and shoulder.
“I didn’t do nothing to you! Ow! Get this dog off of me sir!,” Moya screams in the disturbing footage.
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Alpharetta police found no violation of the police department’s policy on use of K-9s.
“There was no violation of departmental policy, or federal or state law,” police said in a statement. “What occurred in this case was necessary to resolve the situation.”
The city’s director of public safety, John Robinson, even claimed Moya was not handcuffed when the dog bit him at Tuesday’s city council meeting.
“I do want to say clearly he was not handcuffed when this took place,” Robinson said. “What a lot of headlines say and people tend to get upset based on headline. But the video as you will see, if you look, clearly shows he was not handcuffed when he was bitten.”
Moya’s attorneys said that the district attorney needs to dismiss the case because they say Moya did not commit a felony.
“The video speaks for itself. The dog was mauling him,” attorney Gerald Griggs said. “He was not committing disorderly conduct. He was not actively resisting.”
The district attorney’s office is now looking into the incident.
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