An Ohio K9 officer is under investigation after police body camera video captured the officer’s dog appearing to attack a man on his stomach with his hands behind his back, authorities said Friday.
The officer, Nicholas Casto, was placed on administrative leave while the investigation into Thursday’s incident north of downtown Canton is ongoing, a spokesperson for the Canton Ohio Police Department said in a brief statement.
“I take these events very seriously,” canton Mayor Christian Turner said in a separate statement on Friday. “I understand that the community will have questions, and I will ensure that my office will provide information as it becomes available.”
The incident occurred after a traffic stop, when authorities found an open bottle of liquor in a car that had been stopped for taking a “sudden turn” toward a curb, according to a police investigation report.
During a search, officers found a gun under a car seat and placed handcuffs on the driver and a passenger, the report said. A crowd gathered near where the stop occurred and became combative with officers, the report said, and was ordered to leave the area.
The report states that two men in the crowd at the scene allegedly threatened a police dog and that Casto, the animal’s handler, said one of the men had sufficient warning and should be arrested.
Casto’s body camera captured the man appearing to speak to the animal, but it is not clear what he said. Casto can be heard saying he was “about to cuff this guy.”
“Say one more thing to this dog,” Casto is heard saying on the video as he approaches the man, who is standing in the front yard of a house next to children.
“Go inside, or you’ll go to jail,” an officer is heard saying just before Casto says the man has been arrested for harassing the dog.
Officers approached the man and appeared to handcuff or attempt to handcuff him, the video shows. The author of the investigation report, who was at the scene, wrote that he saw that the man immediately began to resist as the officers approached.
The video shows three officers pinning the man to the ground. As the man lies on his stomach with his hands crossed behind his back, Casto can be seen approaching him as the dog repeatedly jumps at the man’s arms.
As people in the crowd scream, the video shows, an officer can be heard telling the man to stop resisting.
The dog appeared to grab the man’s arm, but no blood was visible in the video. After Casto pulled the animal off the man, another officer is seen handcuffing him and taking him to a police vehicle.
“Good boy,” you hear Casto say to the dog.
Four people were arrested at the scene, including the two men involved in the traffic stop and two from the crowd. The latter were arrested on suspicion of disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and obstruction, according to the report.
One of the men is also accused of assaulting a police officer. The other was accused of making threats against a police K9, the report said.
A message left at a phone number listed for Casto was not immediately returned. The local police union did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
