Stanley McQuery is suing the police dog that bit him when he tried to get away from police after breaking into an elderly man’s apartment, pushing the man out of his electric wheelchair and trying to flee from police, very slowly.
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McQuery is also suing the K9 officer, claiming excessive force, assault and battery. He wants the city to pay him $7 million.
“I think it’s silly,” said 79-year-old William Ballard, McQuery’s victim.
Ballard lost his leg at age 74 after a near fatal bout with MRSA, he said.
Ballard recalled the terrifying night in April when he was the target of McQuery’s bizarre caper.
“He climbed in my window and I saw him coming in, and I said ‘What are you doing?’ and he said, ‘I'm trying to go out,’" Ballard said.
“I seen a wheelchair that looked like mine, electric wheelchair,” McQuery said from inside jail, when 10News went to speak with him.
“He pushed me out of the chair and then he said ‘move your leg or I'll run it over'… then he took off,” Ballard said.
“I was just tripping. I don't know what was going on with me or nothing like that,” McQuery said.
McQuery’s getaway was about two miles an hour.
“The officer was like, if you don't stop I’m going to let the dog loose.”
McQuery claims he was on the ground face down when the K9 officer ordered the dog to attack.
“Then I felt the dog sitting on my back and then the officer starts saying 'eat him up, eat him up,' like that,” McQuery said.
McQuery listed the police dog as an individual defendant twice in the lawsuit.
When 10News asked him why he’s suing the police dog, he seemed confused.
“I must have made a mistake,” McQuery said.
“No, I love dogs. I have a service animal, a service dog,” he said.
McQuery said he has been homeless for a year-and-a-half, since he got out of prison after serving 16 years for drug dealing.
He was a three-striker, but was let out early when the law changed.
He said he has mental health issues.
“I didn't know what I was doing at the time and that I apologize,” McQuery said.
McQuery plead guilty to robbery and faces 16 years in prison when he's sentenced in early February.
