Sandy MaloneBakersfield, CA – A man who choked and viciously bit a Kern County Sheriff’s Office K9 as he was being apprehended was sentenced to five years in prison last Thursday.
The incident occurred just after midnight on Aug. 21 when deputies responded to a report of a car theft and a court order violation in the 2100-block of Lantana Way near Niles Street and Fairfax Road, KGET reported.
California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers quickly located the stolen vehicle near Ming Avenue and Stine Road, but the driver – 41-year-old Jared Allen – refused to stop.
Allen led CHP and Kern County sheriff’s deputies on a chase that eventually ended near the emergency room entrance at Adventist Health Bakersfield, causing the hospital to go into lockdown, according to KGET.
The suspect refused to exit his vehicle, so deputies deployed a K9 officer to help get the suspect out of his car.
But when the K9 tried to help take the suspect into custody, Allen put a chokehold on the dog and bit him under his left eye, KGET reported.
Kern County sheriff’s deputies had to use force to get Allen to stop biting the K9. And then they dragged the suspect out of his vehicle and took him into custody.
The dog suffered cuts along his lower eye and was taken to a veterinarian for treatment. He returned to duty the next day.
Allen was arrested and charged with burglary, grand theft auto, resisting arrest with violence, and battery on a peace officer, KGET reported.
In a negotiated plea deal, Allen pleaded no contest in March to willfully harming a peace officer’s dog with serious injury, resisting arrest, evading a peace officer, and taking a vehicle without the owner’s consent.
Allen was sentenced to five years in prison on April 25, KGET reported.