A Miami police K-9 bit a man Thursday as officers arrested a grand-theft-auto suspect who, police say, tried to run from them on foot. The suspect, identified in police records as 42-year-old Carlton Moss, suffered a bite to his left forearm and was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital before being processed into county custody.
According to Local 10, officers say Moss was in the driver’s seat of a white Ford truck that had been reported stolen hours earlier in Miami Shores. An officer later spotted him walking in a camouflage jumpsuit. Police say Moss ran, jumped a fence along Northwest 65 Street near 17th Avenue and was tracked by a K-9 team to a backyard. Officers arrested him shortly before 11:40 a.m. at 1724 NW 66 St., and Miami-Dade corrections records show he was booked at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center later that day with a circuit judge assigned to the case.
Police account of the apprehension
An officer’s report says Moss did not follow commands and fled when confronted, then was found hiding in a backyard by a K-9 team. “During apprehension, [Moss] sustained a dog bite to his left forearm,” the report states. Miami Fire Rescue personnel transported him to Jackson Memorial for treatment, as reported by Local 10. The report lists a felony grand-theft-auto charge and a misdemeanor count of resisting arrest without violence.
K-9 training and safety
The Miami Police Department notes that its K-9 teams complete intensive training in tracking, detection, apprehension and handler protection, according to a department news release on a K-9 training completion ceremony. The release says the program uses scenario-based exercises to test decision-making, control and teamwork under stress, which officials say is meant to reinforce accountability during high-risk encounters, according to the Miami Police Department…