Newly obtained court documents reveal the Bakersfield Police Officer, charged with misdemeanor assault, placed the woman's arm and leg in the K-9's mouth in attempts to get the dog to bite.
- Officer Anthony Beruman is facing misdemeanor assault under the color of authority following an internal investigation.
- Review of the officer's body-camera footage showed Beruman went as far as to place the suspect's limbs in the mouth of his K-9 in an attempt to get the dog to bite.
Glass bottles were were shattered on the ground and pepper spray lingered in the air as officers responded to a burglary in progress at the Blanco Hotel on June 7. It was this scene where Bakersfield Police Officer Anthony Berumen is alleged to have assaulted a suspect.
“Two days later, during our normal supervisory review,” said BPD Chief Greg Terry Thursday, describing the start of the internal investigation. “A supervisor discovered and reviewed the body cam footage from this ended up reporting what they had observed.”
Newly obtained court documents explain that after the woman barricaded herself in the bathroom, officers attempted to breach the door, many of whom were suffering effects from the pepper spray — including Berumen. Officers reported seeing Berumen coughing and sneezing due to the spray, according to the documents.
Berumen and the K-9 then entered the bathroom through the breached door, the documents state, but several officers reported they couldn’t tell whether the K-9 engaged with the woman.
During a review of Berumen’s body camera by a supervisor on June 9, according to the report, the supervisor said Berumen deployed the K-9 several times and gave the “bite command”, but the K-9 “entered the bathroom and circled.. [and] did not bite [redacted] at that time as commanded.” The documents state Berumen then “entered the bathroom…placing himself between his partner and the other officers outside…he took hold of [redacted] right hand with both of his hands and said “give me your hands now.”
According to the report, he then commanded the K-9 to bite the suspect 7 more times while holding her arm and then used her arm to “strike [redacted] on his head and snout.”
The supervisor noted the K-9’s mouth came into contact with the suspects arm at that point, according to the report. The document states Berumen again commanded the dog to bite and then took to K-9’s snout and placed it on the suspects calf, but supervisor noted the K-9 did not bite down.
Berumen then placed the suspects foot in the K-9’s mouth and commanded him to bite several more times, but it appeared no pressure was applied, according to supervisor’s review.
After this interaction the report state the suspect was pulled out of the bathroom and taken into custody.
“We take all matters of use of force seriously, and we always have, and we thoroughly investigate them,” Terry said Thursday.
Due to this ongoing internal investigation and the criminal proceeding, the chief stated that the department could not discuss the matter further.
Along with reviewing of the body cam footage, detectives interviewed the suspect at Lerdo Jail. She told that the use-of-force was “unnecessary,” even suggesting that the K-9 almost “ripped my head off”, according to the documents.
When the detectives question her further about the interaction with the K-9 however. she told them ”the K-9 looked at me and stated like whimpering,” then said “the K-9 never bit her”.
During this investigation, another officer told detectives he’d seen the K-9 “fail” before.
“Part of the reason that we released it in the way that we did, [was] because we discovered this internally,” Terry said Thursday.
Berumen is currently on paid administrative leave. He denied giving a criminal complaint, according to the documents. He is due in court on Aug. 8.
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