South Bay Police Release Footage Of K-9 Attack On Innocent Man

PALO ALTO, CA — The Palo Alto and Mountain View police departments released body camera footage Tuesday of an incident last summer involving a canine unit in which a police dog attacked an innocent man at a Mountain View house.

The Palo Alto Police Department and Mountain View Police Department released body camera footage from officers in connection with a dog attack on June 25, 2020, near Elsie Avenue as Palo Alto police assisted Mountain View police in seeking a suspect in a domestic violence and kidnapping call.

Joel Domingo Alejo filed a $20 million lawsuit against the cities of Palo Alto and Mountain View for injuries he suffered in the attack, the Daily Post reported. Alejo was not connected with the case under investigation.

The Palo Alto City Council discussed the claim in a closed session Monday.

The incident took place in the early morning. Authorities believed that a suspect fled into a residential neighborhood. Officers searched a storage shed in the yard and found Alejo inside. The dog then attacked him, and officers handcuffed him.

The Palo Alto police video from officers Ian Johnson and Nicholas Enberg shows them in the yard around 2:30 a.m., according to a timestamp. A K-9 dog enters the storage shed, finds and attacks a man inside, who screams. Officers yell at him to “stop resisting” and to “give up” before handcuffing him. “Who is this?” one officer is heard saying while Alejo is being handcuffed.

Almost immediately, officers doubt that they have the right suspect. “I don’t think this is him,” an officer says, according to body camera footage from the Mountain View Police Department. “I think it’s just a prowler.”

An officer holds up the man’s ID and reads his name: “Joel Alejo?” apparently asking the other officers if that is the name of the person they're seeking. “No,” the other officers respond.

Officers then tell Alejo that he is not under arrest as he sits in the back of a police car waiting to be treated for a bite to his leg.

“We know it’s not you, so you’re not under arrest,” the officer said. “You’re not in trouble. We just want to make sure that your leg is going to be OK.”

Residents of the house told police after the incident that Alejo was a relative visiting for the day but thought he had left and weren't aware he was in the backyard.

The suspect in the kidnapping case was arrested nearly a month later, on July 17.

An independent police auditor with the Palo Alto Police Department will review the incident and publish a public report with their findings, the department said. The department added that supervisors and administrators conducted a thorough investigation of the incident “shortly after it occurred.”