To view the dog attack, here’s the video Palo Alto police released. And here’s a link to the eight videos Mountain View police released.
BY KYLE MARTIN
Daily Post Staff Writer
Several residents tonight called for the firing of the cop who commanded a dog to attack an innocent Mountain View man while he slept in his backyard.
Salim Damerdji, of Mountain View, told Palo Alto City Council that Police Agent Nick Enberg should be fired because “he’s a legal liability for your city and taxpayers.”
Damerdji brought up previous cases involving Enberg:
• that he was a defendant in a lawsuit the city settled for $250,000 over a police dog attack on a Palo Alto High School student in 2016;
• that he was one of two officers who shot and killed a man who emerged from a group home for mental patients with a gun on Christmas Day 2015. However, the two officers were cleared of any wrongdoing in the shooting by the district attorney;
• and that is one of eight defendants in a $10 million lawsuit alleging police brutality involving an attack on Julio Arevalo outside Happy Donuts.
“It’s really clear that there’s something messed up in Palo Alto’s police department. This is not the first problem in the police department. You are well aware of the other incidents that have occurred in Palo Alto PD and it is now affecting Mountain View residents,” Damerdji said. “So please, settle immediately with Mr. Alejo and pay him the money that he needs and is owed.”
Aram James, a former public defender, called for the District Attorney Jeff Rosen to charge Enberg with attempted murder and assault with a deadly weapon. Rosen’s office previously told the Post it would not charge any officers in the attack.
Raven Malone, a Palo Alto resident who lost a bid for city council last year, was also highly critical of police and noted that the department failed to release anything about the dog attack when it happened last June.
The attack came to light in January after the Daily Post obtained a legal claim filed against the cities of Mountain View and Palo Alto by the victim, Joel Domingo Alejo.
“The fact that this is happening in June and we’re just now finding out about it shows that we still don’t have transparency within our police department, which is also unacceptable. This was a blatant use of excessive force. They didn’t even ask who he was before using an attack dog,” Malone said.
She added that officers found to have used excessive force in Palo Alto should be fired and also told the council that though some of them may “feel like we only have a few bad apples in our police department, but a few bad apples spoils the whole bunch and we’re no longer welcoming any spoiled bunches in our community.”
Mountain View resident Eva Tang told council she wants Enberg gone too and that Palo Alto should settle Alejo’s claim.
“I really hate conflict and I really hate to call for someone to be fired from their job, but I don’t think that I want officer Enberg to be serving our public in this way,” Tang said. “I feel very uncomfortable with that.”
The comments came six days after the cities of Mountain View and Palo Alto released body-cam video of the attack, as is required by state law.
On June 25 at about 2:30 a.m., Mountain View police were searching for a kidnapper in the 1900 block of Elsie Ave.
Mountain View asked Palo Alto for the use of one of its canine teams, a dog and an officer trained to handle the dog. Police searched nearby homes, including at least two others in the 1800 block of Elsie.
The video shows Enberg commanding a police dog named Balko to continually bite Alejo while he slept in his backyard. After Alejo had been repeatedly bitten, police realized they had the wrong man.
And the council does nothing?????
How about a policy or law that says police shouldn’t use their dogs to bite people —- and if they do, they’ll lose their jobs and face prosecution?
I’m sure they have something similar for shooting off their guns.
Why is the council not doing anything?!?!
Kyle Martin, [Portion deleted because it obtained obscenity] … Do you even know anything about K9s? The suspect was wanted for kidnapping, robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle, and then evading the police. Do you not realize that if they had the right suspect, this bite would have been justified? You look like an uneducated fool.
[Post removed. Please do not use the comments section to threaten to hurt others.]
Typical biased anti-cop article, avoiding the facts of the incident and summarizing the past incidents with minimal detail. Do better, Daily Post
What is the unbiased approach? Pretend it never happened? How do you sugarcoat a vicious dog attack?
This article completely leaves out the facts. Such as how officers asked permission to search the yard and the family members obliged, not knowing Alejo was back there. Gotta love when an article says Enberg “commanded a dog to attack an innocent Mountain View man while he slept in his backyard” with no background on what led up to that. Unfortunately the wrong man was bitten… a big mistake, but mistakes happen in every profession. If this WAS the right suspect, the bite would have been justified. Even if you don’t like it.
Kyle Martin is notoriously anti-cop and writes articles that fit his narrative. Read the police reports on all of the incidents he describes above and you’ll see what I’m talking about. You need to read the unbiased facts before you decide what changes you want to see.
Hey Mr. Anonymous,
How long have you known Kyle Martin? How do you know that he’s anti-cop? I would say he’s just reporting what happened, and you don’t like the facts, so you attack the messenger.
Tell me how you know him?
I’ll bet you’re a cop. Only a cop could reduce this horrifying incident to a “mistake” that happens in every profession.
I’m a CPA and I’ve never made a mistake that injured somebody like that.
The facts are that a police officer allowed his dog to repeatedly bite an innocent man. Even if he wasn’t innocent, this is not how our police should handle arrestees. This must change.
Treat the police as you would a violently psychotic pedophile rapist because that’s the mentality you’ll find in your local police department. You’ll find more integrity & humanity in a Gestapo torture chamber.
You are a very disturbed person.
“…police shouldn’t use their dogs to bite people – and if they do, they’ll lose their jobs and face prosecution”?! So in other words…ban Police K9 units? Or are you saying that the police should keep their K9 units, but they are only there to…bark at suspects? Chase them down and then… bark? What on earth would that do? An armed suspect without the possibility of the dog biting him would not stop, and probably shoot or stab the dog if it caught up to them and just stood there. Then we would see all the postings along the lines of “Oh that poor dog! Fire the police officer who sent him after the suspect and put him in harms way”!