Gainesville Police Department Releases Body Cam Footage of Woman Being Physically Assaulted by K-9

Updated Apr 6: Updated Miles' booking time

Editors Notes | Due to GPD's press release indicating some individuals were having difficulty downloading the body camera footage, it has been placed into a Google Drive folder for simplicity.

The Gainesville Police Department (GPD) has released full-body camera footage of a recent incident where a woman was physically assaulted by a K-9 after being mistaken for a domestic violence suspect. The 70-minute video shows the events before, during, and after the incident.

On March 24, GPD announced that a woman had been sent to the hospital the day prior as a result of calf and thumb injuries from a K-9.

On Thursday, GPD made another post, announcing the apprehension of the domestic battery suspect, Dovico Miles Jr, as he turned himself in on Tuesday.

GPD originally reported that the woman was given “additional verbal warnings,” however in their latest press release, they said the officers gave “immediate commands” to the K-9, indicating acknowledgment that the women did not have time to react to their verbal warnings.

There were approximately three seconds between the officers rapidly stating, “Let me see your hands,” and the woman’s screams.

GPD stated in their latest release that the K-9 was “immediately withdrawn.” However, the video shows the victim being attacked for 20 seconds. The handler dropped the K-9’s leash for a brief moment 10 minutes prior to the attack and appeared to have to wrestle the dog off of the victim.

The press release states, “preliminary internal review of the incident revealed that K9 policy and deployment protocols were followed.” GPD went on to say, “Follow-up support and resources were offered to the victim in order to aid in her recovery.” GPD did not disclose what specific services were offered or if they were accepted.

After the attack, the woman continued screaming and asking the officers, “Why?” One officer asked her to “calm down,” while the officer recording the body camera footage told her, “It’s alright.”

The recording officer can be heard asking her questions which could lead them to the suspect as she sat on the grass suffering from her injuries.

After kneeling next to her and patting the woman on her arm for a few minutes, the officer offers to help the woman up, to which she responds that she cannot walk. She asks the officer a question asked by many Gainesville residents: “What the hell is going on?”

The officer explained, “What happened is there is a very bad man that is beating a woman and is around here. We were looking for that man. The dog thought that, over there, the man was on the other side. The man dropped something on the other side, so the smell was coming close.”

The woman asked if the suspect was a man who was dressing as a woman.

The officer replied that he was a man who was beating a woman.

According to GPD, the victim had similar clothes as the suspect. That and a trail of discarded clothes and broken ankle monitor pieces lead them to believe she was Miles.

The officer contacted emergency medical services (EMS), and she was transported to the hospital.

As an EMS worker was administering aid, he asked the woman what she was doing there as she was crying. She responds by saying that she's homeless and needs medical attention.

The EMS worker replies, “Okay, you’re getting it right now. I’m trying to figure out exactly what we're doing.” The woman said she was homeless again, to which the worker replied, “Okay, then that's all I needed you to say.”

At the end of the body camera footage, the woman made an unequivocal statement.

 “Fuck you guys.”