DEERFIELD BEACH -- A suspect seriously injured claimed he was attacked by three canine cops.
The suspect says the attack was unprovoked.
The suspect lead Margate police on a chase through eight townships at high speed with his lights out, sometimes driving into incoming traffic at Hillsboro Boulevard and NW 12th Avenue.
John Barton says he acquired the wounds shown on video by police dogs. He alleges that while being face down on the ground with his hands tied back, police dogs seized him in his leg.
Barton says, "I didn’t have no gun, no weapon, I was given up."
Although the 39-year-old suspect admits he was not acting exactly like a choir boy on April 20th, he still contends that the attack was uncalled.
The incident happened inside a Margate convenient store. John Barton went inside to buy a soda, while reaching into his pocket to pay, a small bag with white powder fell off his pocket. A police sergeant standing in line behind him picks the small bag and then proceeds to take Barton outside to talk about it. Outside the sergeant says there was an altercation. Barton gets behind the wheel and so it begins a dangerous 45-minute chase.
Police described Barton on the wrong side of the road, driving dangerously and endangering civilians.
Barton says, "What I did was wrong but this is totally wrong."
Jim Leljdal from Broward Sheriff’s Office says, "They ordered him out of the car and to put his hands up. He was reaching between the car seats for something. We had no choice but to either fire on him or release one of the canines. He continued to fight arrest, out deputies and our dogs."
Police says that he may have been reaching inside the car seats for the 29 bags of cocaine they found inside his car. He is now being charged with aggravated assault of a law enforcement officer, fleeing and eluding, possession of cocaine and other charges besides.
His driver’s license has been suspended seven times, and he plans to sue the Broward Sheriff’s Office over the dog bites.
The victim claims that the third dog was used when he was already on the ground. Police says that is not the case.
Barton faces a number of charges including, alluding police and aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer.
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper which first published the article online and which is indicated at the top of the article unless otherwise specified.