‘Cops Can Be Heard Laughing and Joking’ After Allowing Police Dog to Attack and Kill Innocent Black Man After False Burgalry Call, Family Lawyer Says
The body camera footage showing a police dog attacking and killing an innocent Black man is so gruesome and shocking that an Alabama judge has blocked its release to the public, claiming it could lead to civil unrest. But those who have watched it say Montgomery police not only allowed the dog inside a house to attack the man who had committed no crime, several cops stood around as he was dying, mocking and laughing at him while refusing to provide life-saving aid because they were prohibited from doing so by department policy. Instead, they waited for paramedics to arrive. As a result, Joseph Lee Pettaway, 51, died from a torn femoral artery, according to his attorney, Griffin Sikes, Jr., who filed an appeal last week in federal court after a district judge dismissed the lawsuit against the city of Montgomery. The family of Joseph Lee Pettaway has filed an appeal after a judge dismissed a lawsuit against the city of Montgomery in Alabama, stemming from an incident where police allowed a police dog to attack and kill him, even though he had committed no crime. (Photo: Pettaway family) “The video is horrendous,” attorney Sikes said in an email interview with Atlanta Black Star, describing several Montgomery police officers standing around Pettaway, cracking jokes as he lay dying. “If you could see it, you would understand why the City fought so hard to prevent its release.” The main argument of the appeal is that the city is responsible for Pettaway’s death because not only did it not train officers to render first aid, but it also had a policy in place forbidding officers from rendering aid to citizens they injure if they had no prior medical training. Had those officers been trained, they could have saved his life by applying pressure to stop the bleeding within five minutes of the injury, according to two doctors who testified in this case, including the state medical examiner who conducted the autopsy. Instead, it took 14 minutes for paramedics to arrive, which was too late to save his life. “By prohibiting the City police officers from providing medical care for his torn artery, the City’s Written Directive 3.3.5 caused the 14 minute delay in providing Mr. Pettaway with any medical care," the appeal states, citing information from the United States Department of Homeland Security. “For persons who sustain a serious physical trauma, like a torn artery, that causes substantial loss of blood, ‘the average time for them to bleed out' is ‘only 3 – 5 minutes.'" The Dog Attack The incident took place during the early hours of July 8, 2018, after Montgomery police received a call from a man named Gary Dixon to report an intruder inside a home, not realizing it was his friend and co-worker, Pettaway. Pettaway and the man, along with another man named James Jones, had been hired to repair a dilapidated house that had been vacant for some time, installing new flooring and sheetrock. On July 7, the men spent the day working on the house, then had a backyard barbecue that evening. After the get-together, Pettaway and Jones left the home while Dixon decided to spend the night. At around 3 a.m. the following morning, Pettaway returned to the home and knocked before entering the home, rousing Dixon from his sleep, who believed it was an intruder because he was not expecting Pettaway to return. Dixon left the home and called the police, and five officers arrived, including Nicholas D. Barber, who arrived with a police dog. The officers surrounded the house but made no attempt to communicate with anybody inside, the appeal states. Minutes later, Barber opened the front door and allowed his police dog inside the home, who found Pettaway underneath a bed and bit into his thigh, refusing to let go. “The dog found Mr. Pettaway under a bed at 3:15:38 AM and attacked him with its teeth,” the appeal states. “The dog locked its teeth into Mr. Pettaway’s left thigh or crotch where his leg meets his torso. As the dog tenaciously held its bite for almost two minutes, the dog shook its head, driving its teeth deeper into Mr. Pettaway and rupturing his femoral artery.” Cops Mocking Victim By the time Barber pulled the dog away, Pettaway had lost consciousness. The cops then dragged the bloodied Black man outside of the house and left him on the sidewalk where they stood around, mocking him. “Four to five police officers are standing directly over Mr. Pettaway's unconscious body, illuminating him lying on the sidewalk with their flashlights, while his blood pools underneath him,” Sikes Jr. said in the email interview with Atlanta Black Star. “While standing there, the cops can be heard joking and laughing.” “One states ‘I guess he's OK?’ to which another cop replies, ‘Well, 'OK' is a relative term -- he's still breathing,’ after which there is laughter.” “Another wisecracks, ‘I bet he's rethinking all his life decisions right now,’ again drawing a round of laughs.” So, not only did a city policy prohibit the officers from rendering aid, they demonstrated no concern that Pettaway was dying, assuming he was guilty based on a phone call from a man who had mistakenly called them. The lawsuit refers to the opinions of two doctors, including a state medical examiner, who both agreed that Pettaway would have survived the dog bite had officers rendered aid in a timely manner. “The facts established in this case demonstrate that Mr. Pettaway received a highly survivable wound by dog bite in the left inguinal region; and that, because no one attempted to stop or slow the bleeding through the simple application of pressure, he bled to death. If direct pressure had been applied, it is very likely that Mr. Pettaway would have survived,” according to an affidavit by Dr. Bennet Omalu, a renowned forensic pathologist from Nigeria who was played by Will Smith in the 2015 movie Concussion. Alabama Medical Examiner, Dr. Stephen Boudreau, who conducted the autopsy on Pettaway’s body, also testified in a deposition that Pettaway would have survived the injury had he received immediate aid. Walter Pettaway, the brother of the victim, filed a lawsuit against the city and various officers in January 2019. Last year, the Pettaway family reached a confidential settlement with Barber, the cop who allowed his dog inside the house, but a judge dismissed the city from the lawsuit, prompting the appeal, which argues the city violated Pettaway’s constitutional rights by denying him medical care. “City police inflicted an injury on Mr. Pettaway – his femoral artery was torn open by a police dog – which the City admitted required medical care “immediately” or at a minimum, within 3 to 5 minutes of its infliction or death would likely result,” the appeal states. “The City did not provide any medical care to Mr. Pettaway until 14 minutes after that injury was inflicted by MPD police.”
