GPD releases statement on recent K9 utilization

Press release from Gainesville Police Department

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – On the evening of March 22, 2024, an off-duty officer of the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) observed Damien Brown, a multiple-time convicted felon, who had active felony warrants within the City of Gainesville. When contacted by GPD officers, Brown fled on a bicycle. Officers properly followed department policy in deploying the K9 Unit. A police K9 was used to physically apprehend Brown, and he was taken into custody. Search incident to arrest revealed Brown had a concealed firearm in his pocket. This arrest showcases GPD’s ongoing efforts in combating gun-related violence. “Our Officers displayed great tenacity and courage with what could have been a very dangerous encounter. I continue to be proud of their daily commitment in keeping our community safe,” said Assistant Police Chief Moya.

Several hours later, in the early morning hours of Saturday, March 23, GPD was called to apprehend a felony domestic violence suspect who had fled on foot. Department policy was again properly followed in deploying the K9 Unit.  

While tracking in the area of 3100 NW 13th Street, a GPD K9 team was led toward an enclosed, fenced-in area behind a business, locating items discarded by the suspect along the way. Within the fenced-in area was a patch of bushes where the K9 handler located a person hiding. Believing this to be the suspect, and giving additional verbal warnings but receiving no response, the dog made contact. The K9 Handler quickly realized the bushes concealed a subject who was later determined to be a houseless neighbor unrelated to the incident. As soon as the K9 Handler became aware that the person was not the suspect, the apprehension was immediately terminated and medical assistance was given. The neighbor was transported to Shands Hospital to receive treatment for punctures to their calf and thumb. 

The Gainesville Fire Rescue Community Response Paramedicine (CRP) Program will connect with this neighbor to offer support. The CRP Program routinely provides services including homelessness outreach and prevention efforts.

“This was an unfortunate and unforeseen event,” said Assistant Police Chief Moya. “In this case, the officers followed all departmental policies and protocols but encountered a person in an unfortunate and unforeseen situation. This is further evidence that safe shelter is important. GPD is continuing to work with GFR and other partners to improve safety for our houseless neighbors through community outreach.”

The Gainesville City Commission recently voted to allocate up to $700,000 of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to GRACE Marketplace to add ten immediate shelter beds and expand an unused section of the facility to put in another 20 beds to provide additional shelter space for neighbors experiencing homelessness.

  • And please make sure that the K9 gets a bite at the end for all his hard work!

  • K9’s shouldn’t be police officers. They are animals. People have the ability to discern who a suspect is. Dogs do not. An innocent victim was hurt in the process.

    • I wonder if the owner of the business where this man was sleeping thinks he’s all that innocent.

      • Y’all are assuming that the person bit was a man. Get your facts straight before you ASSume.

    • If the dog was taking a person’s scent then why would it mistake the other person

      • I have heard the dog can smell the adrenaline emitting from the person who is running and in a panic. For all we know, the bum who got nipped might be a murder suspect in other states. He saw the cops, freaked out, and tried to hide behind some bushes. Why? That’s what they should be asking themselves. Of course they wouldn’t even expect one of their sacred cash cows to have ID, let alone ask to see it.

      • Because it’s a spazzing out dog and it saw something in the bushes then the leash got dropped. At the Michael Vick Memorial K9 school they train the dog to latch onto whatever is in front of them when the leash drops. Similarly packs of LEOs tend to bark conflicting orders, which when a dog is involved becomes dangerous to anyone in the area involved or not.

        A flashbang grenade would literally be more effective and less dangerous for apprehensions than a dog attack on top of all the chaos.

        • A flashbang could cause for harm due to concussion effect. There are also fire concerns from any flammable substances. If there was a K-9 present and orders were given and the person did not comply then the dog apprehends. If a flashbang gets tossed and causes the person to make certain moves or doesn’t comply due to concussion, temporary blindness, concussion then what throw another, or worse shoot? The K9 was cleared by Dept. Review. It sucks but this tragically happens every so often. A lot less then police being assaulted or killed in this state and country.

    • If these assholes would obey the law, not run from police officers, the use of a canine will not be used, being The POS they are K9s are very effective tool apprehending these POS me personally I’d rather officers just shoot them and be done with it.

      • The press release is about the dog attacking a random homeless person in the bushes. I don’t know why GPD included the first story about a separate arrest the previous day…. intentional obfuscation I assume

    • If the innocent victim would have identified his or herself it wouldn’t have happen.
      I know GPD officers announced themselves, I’d bet my paycheck on it, and alerted the person they spotted before deploying the K9 of who they were and why they were there.
      If the “houseless” person had not been homeless, living in the bushes smoking crack, all paranoid and quiet when the cops rolled up they’d not have the k9 come thier way.
      Maybe a good ole K9 office bite will prompt the “houseless” individual to make a change in thier life.
      Got to find the gratitude in it you know.
      🤔

    • He was given adequate and several warnings before the K9 was released. Any sane person would have replied after being warned, whether they were the perpetrator or not.

  • $700,000 for 30 beds? Such a deal! And they are too dumb to realize that it means like 300 additional bums will arrive here from all over, hoping to get one of those 30 free spots.

    The only answer is to give GRACE and DeGrifto the boot… send him back to New Jersey or wherever he came from.

    Take some police dogs down to SE 4th Place and clean up that giant mess.

  • Stop apologizing! We need MORE K-9 incidents like this, not less. Plus give cops a 200% pay raise, for having to repeatedly deal with these miscreants let loose by the DA, public defender and scummy judges (who should get a 50% pay CUT).

      • The dog attacked a bum in the bushes, not the perp. GPD included a lengthy description of a previous arrest in the first paragraph…which has nothing to do with the dog biting the wrong person story.

        • Yeah, they should have just included the first part of the story about the dog apprehending the potential murder suspect. The rest is not really newsworthy in the real world.

          Don’t hide in the bushes behind a business in the middle of the night and ignore police commands, and these things won’t happen. People get bit by dogs every day. Stuff happens. Suing the city is the remedy if there is serious injury. There likely isn’t.

    • “AND JESUS SAID: Laughing at homeless being attacked by dogs brings you closer to Me”

      —Dumbass 24:7

  • I’m sure one of our dedicated personal injury attorneys here in Alachua County will make sure the innocent victim isn’t homeless any more. What is wrong with all you haters that just want to spread your uninformed hate before you have any possibility of knowing what happened? God help us from the criminals AND the haters.

    • I think (hope) some of the comments are due to the poorly written press release, conflating the 700k gift to grace, an innocent homeless person bitten by a dog, and a crime from a different day.

  • Sadly, an innocent homeless person was injured, but I do believe this incident should tell the city commission, city manager, and the mayor that there really is a huge homeless issue. In a recent meeting and in an article, the mayor said that it was not as big as it had been. I am sorry, but it is definitely a much, much, much bigger problem than it was in 2020. My family and I were homeless at that point, but we did have shelter at Saint Francis House. We made the best of a bad situation, and since April 2020, we have been in our own place and built back up. Our situation was unique to most, but we did not see the amount of homeless crime we are seeing now. However, this particular situation was not a crime of the homeless person, and I am glad that GPD is in the midst of making it right, but maybe they should have offered to put the person in a motel or something to make sure that the person’s wounds are less susceptible to infection.

    • You and your familys story proves my point anyone may need help from time to time and most people are one to two pay checks away from being homeless.it’s what you do with the help that makes a difference as in your case you over came the issues you had cause your situation. The problem i have with homeless is the ones who do it for away of life the same ones who will come up to you out side of a store asking for money but will curse at if you offer them a job to earn that money they think we owe them. Then you have these idiot, city, commissioners and county commissioners in Alaucha county who feel we do owe them a living and spend thousands of thousands of dollars a year to give it to them. 700 thousand dollars to ad only 30 rooms these rooms must be like being in a trump tower

      • Similar to my thoughts on it. I believe in merit based hand outs. Meaning, someone hits a couple of life’s speed bumps but they are not currently drug seeking and such, they should be top of the line for a helping hand or two or three if good faith effort is there by them.
        Folks (which is most imo) who feel entitled no matter what who have been through the system 10, 20, 30 times can rough it. Of course 1 reason they’ve been through the system 30 times is cause the system allows it too so the person doing their 9 to 5 gets victimized later by them- to me the blame lays equally with the system that allows it.
        I know this type of view doesn’t fly in gainesville however, I am a realist.

  • If there were very much less assistance offered to the homeless they would move on, away from Gainesville. Not a popular opinion I’m sure, but think about homelessness in terms of an animal. An animal will move to an area where there is food and shelter, and leave an area where there is none.

    • No, your comment is spot on and all normal people agree.

      The willful homeless (which make up the overwhelming majority of our city’s homeless) just roam to wherever the suckers are, where the handouts are easy and the laws are not enforced.

      The city should only provide very minimal, high-barrier services to cover a small percent of temporary homeless. This low-barrier shelter stuff that the criminal POS Jon DeCarmine has inflicted on our town is no different than dumping toxic waste in our lakes and streams. It harms everyone and the effects linger for years.

  • Why advertise nationwide for a new Chief? Promote Moya, he is a seasoned veteran and former police chief.

    • “Neighbors” is something city personnel have been instructed to address humans without homes as. Like one big happy family from Portland or SanFran. This idealistic utopian philosophy is killing the town.

  • Unless the homeless women is black there won’t be any outcry from the radical community activist to disband the GPD K-9 unit.

  • Welp they’ve messed up again! Those of you on here saying that’s good…shame on you! It’s sad She didn’t have something to kill that mf!!!

  • The insane use of the word neighbor by every City of Gainesville department needs to stop.

  • It is very sad that so many commenters are okay with this outcome. No innocent person should ever be attacked by a K9. It also seems obvious to me that the police didn’t intentionally sic the dog on the lady…it was an unfortunate accident. However, the police should have been straight up in their press release instead of intentionally stirring up political and ideological sentiment by conflating multiple stories.

    They aren’t public relations idiots…quite the contrary, it seems. But ultimately this is no way for a government agency to handle their incident response plan. They do not seem very remorseful, to say the least

    • I couldn’t agree more and I appreciate the balanced comment. More of this is needed!

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