San Diego City Council is scheduled to approve a $600,0000 settlement to a woman who was severely injured in her own yard when a police dog escaped its trainer’s yard and bit her lower leg.
A lawsuit filed by Jenna Cole in March detailed the January 2021 incident, when the dog initially attempted to attack her 5-year-old daughter Charlotte who was protected by the netting of a trampoline she was playing.
Jenna, who was sitting nearby, then became a target for the police dog and suffered injuries from the bite that required significant sutures and scarred, according to documents obtained by the San Diego Union-Tribune.
“The dog leapt onto the trampoline frame and viciously tried to bite and scratch through the netting to attack Charlotte,” reads the suit. “Unable to get to its target, defendants’ trained attack dog also went under the trampoline and attempted to bite Charlotte’s feet through the trampoline mat wherever she stepped.”
The lawsuit alleged the attack was “vicious” and “unprovoked. It alleges that the city was negligent in how it trained and monitored the police K-9, and contends such animals should be in secure facilities, not residential neighborhoods.
According to the suit, the Police Department’s dog handler was able to enter
Cole’s yard to grab the attacking dog by the head. City officials said the dog escaped his handler’s backyard through a gate with a broken latch while the officer was cleaning its city-issued kennel.
