dpatop - 22 June 2019, Lower Saxony, Oldenburg: A police dog of the service dog leader squadron looks up at the "Welcome Day" of the police of Lower Saxony with opened snout. Today (22.06.2019) the new students of the Police Academy Lower Saxony are welcomed. Photo: Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/dpa (Photo by Mohssen Assanimoghaddam/picture alliance via Getty Images)
A Georgia man who was attacked by a police dog during a mental health crisis plans on suing the department responsible for the traumatic and wrongful arrest, according to the Atlanta Black Star.
Travis Moya, 37, was at his home last July when his wife, Kami, and stepson called 911 after expressing concern for his mental state as he paced back and forth while grunting and punching his car. The ensuing response from the Alpharetta Police Department ended with Travis in handcuffs and severe wounds from dog bites.
Police body-cam footage of the incident shows Travis in handcuffs, surrounded by three officers before he falls to the ground. That’s when video shows a police dog tearing into his skin, causing 40 bite wounds alongside a concussion he sustained just moments prior to the K-9 attack.
Kami Moya who could be heard on video screaming and crying as her defenseless husband was attacked, called it “the most traumatic experience ever,” the Black Star reported.
“It was terrifying to record my husband being attacked and trying to record and care at the same time,” said Kami Moya “It was the most traumatic experience ever. There were pieces of his arm; he’s missing pieces of his arm.”
Police said the dog was released due to Moya’s “aggression,” adding that he began to take his jacket off while walking towards the K-9 officer with his fists closed before the dog attacked.
The K-9 officer wrote in the use-of-force report that the dog would instinctively attack someone if released while someone is “walking up on him” Authorities added that the dog latched on to Moya because he “continued not to put his hands behind his back.”
Body-cam footage shows Moya, with a jacket partially removed, moving toward the front of his house when an officer appears after pulling up.
“Hey, calm down, man. It’s OK. We’re just here to help,” the officer said.
“I don’t know if he took anything, but he’s not his usual self. He’s breathing hard…” Kami Moya said before Travis interjects, prompting the officer to warned him about the K-9.
Moya was then taken to a nearby hospital to treat the dog bite wounds before being booked on felony obstruction charges in the Fulton County Jail.
However, prosecutors ultimately ended up dropping the charges on June 29, according to the outlet.
“The whole experience has been traumatic. It’s affected myself, my family, a whole realm of things,” Travis Moya said of the incident.
Just weeks after the charges were dropped, Moya and his lawyer are looking to make the department to pay for the damage caused by last year’s K-9 attack.
His attorney L. Chris Stewart claims Moya lost 100 percent of his mobility and numerous job opportunities because of the attack, and added that the damage is done, regardless of the charges being dropped.
“All too often, an individual’s character is assassinated, and months or years later, charges are dropped or dismissed. But the damage to Mr. Moya has already been done,” Moya’s attorney said.
Stewart questioned the reasoning behind the charges in the first place, saying that they were filed against Moya “to hide the bad behavior of the officer involved in this situation” and calling the incident a “flashback to the 1960’s in Alpharetta.”
“We all saw from the video that Mr. Moya didn’t do a single thing in order to be charged and that he was the victim of excessive force,” Stewart said at the press conference. “In these situations of excessive force, the easiest way to hide that is by creating these unnecessary and false charges against somebody. That’s the easiest way to hide bad behavior.”
The exact nature and damages being sought in Moya’s impending lawsuit remains unclear as of Tuesday.
