K-9 police dog rips scalp off Black woman in suspected shoplifting arrest

K-9 Cop Rips Scalp Off Black Woman During Suspected Shoplifting Arrest

Source: LIONEL BONAVENTURE / Getty

Police brutality isn’t always a badged human abusing his or her power, sometimes it comes in a furrier and toothier form.

According to ABC7News, a Black woman had her scalp ripped off by a K-9 dog as she was being arrested for allegedly shoplifting from an Ulta Beauty Supply store. Talmika Bates fully admits to being part of a 3-person group who stole $10,000 worth of perfume from a Brentwood, California location back in February 2020. Bates was in a getaway car that smashed into a police cruiser and was later ditched as she and the other suspects lead police on a foot chase. All three suspects ran to hide in various places like garbage cans and bushes. Brentwood Police Department canine Marco and his handler Officer Ryan Rezentes found Bates in the aforementioned bush. That’s when s**t go ugly.

“The dog is biting me,” Bates could be heard screaming in police body worn camera video.

“I just feel something attacking me, like paws on my back, then I start feeling rips from the scalp here, here, here and teeth grinding,” Bates said, pointing to her head during an interview with ABC7 News.

“I thought I was going to die, I really did,” she continued.

Bates says she called her mother screaming, “Mama, my whole brain is bleeding, mama.” Officer Rezentes reported that Marco is trained to bite the first part of the human body that he comes in contact with regardless of whether he has been commanded to do so. The dog will remain locked on until the officer releases him from the fleeing suspect. Bates says that she was given no warning that she might be attacked. Rezentes says he did not have an indication that someone may be on the scene and only told the dog to “search”. When all was said and done, Bates was bitten by the German Shepherd for a whole 60 seconds.

That’s a long a** time. While surgeons were able to repair the woman’s scalp, she has filed a lawsuit asking for Officer Rezentes to be fired and for Marco to be euthanized.