Family agrees to settle lawsuit against officer whose police dog killed an Alabama man

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — The family of a man killed by a police dog in Montgomery, Alabama, has agreed to settle its federal lawsuit against the police officer who handled the animal, but their lawyers said Friday that they plan to appeal a ruling that cleared the city of responsibility.

The confidential settlement was reached in July in the 2019 lawsuit against Montgomery officer Nicholas Barber, who was responsible for the K9 that attacked and killed then 50-year-old Joseph Pettaway in 2018.

Pettaway was sleeping in a small house where he was employed as a handyman when officers responded to a call that reported an unknown occupant, according to court documents. Almost immediately after the officers arrived, Barber released the dog into the house where it found Pettaway and bit into his groin.

The bite severed Pettaway’s femoral artery, autopsy reports showed. Officers took Pettaway outside where he bled out while waiting for paramedics, according to family’s lawsuit.

“I hope that the case for the family brings some closure for something that is a long time coming,” said their attorney, Griffin Sikes.

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The Associated Press has investigated and documented thousands of cases across the U.S. where police tactics considered non-lethal have resulted in fatalities. The nationwide database includes Pettaway’s case.

The lawsuit also named the City of Montgomery and its police chief at the time, Ernest Finley, alleging that the officers had been trained not to provide first aid.

“The Supreme Court has decided that cities and counties are responsible for administering medical care when they arrest somebody,” said Sikes. “We think they failed to do that in this case, and it is not a failure of the individual officers, but a failure of the city that says you’re not to provide medical care”

The claims against the city and the chief were dismissed, but Sikes said the Pettaway family plans on appealing.

Attorneys for Barber, Finley and the City of Montgomery did not respond to an emailed request for comment sent by The Associated Press on Friday morning.

Body camera recordings showing what happened have never been made public. It took years of litigating for the Pettaway family and their lawyers to see them. The judge sided with the city, which said revealing them could create “potential for protests which could endanger the safety of law enforcement officers, the public and private property.”

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerusha T. Adams suggested that the family was “attempting to try this case in the informal court of public opinion, rather than in the courtroom.”

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Riddle reported from Montgomery. Riddle is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.