N.C. Police: Suspect Attacks, Bites K-9 on Ear with 'Intent to Maim'
What to know
• Burlington police officers say a 44-year-old suspect bit K-9 Talon on the ear as police served an arrest warrant Dec. 1.
• This marked the second time Talon has been injured on duty; the dog survived a 2020 stabbing during an earlier arrest.
• Police did not say whether the dog bit back, and Talon previously appeared in court in 2024 as part of a related prosecution.
An unusual role reversal played out during a chaotic arrest in North Carolina, when the suspect attacked and bit a police dog, according to investigators.
It happened Dec. 1 outside a home in Burlington, and records show it’s the second time the same dog has been injured during an arrest.
In the most recent incident, Burlington police were serving an arrest warrant when a 44-year-old man attacked K-9 officer Talon “by biting him on the left ear,” court records say.
The man was subdued and charged with felony assault on a law enforcement agency animal and misdemeanor resisting arrest, according to an arrest warrant.
Details of Talon’s injuries were not released, but the bite was done with “intent to main” and caused “acute pain,” officials say.
Police did not report whether the dog bit the man in return.
Talon was stabbed during an arrest in May 2020, according to police department Facebook posts. He recovered and was back on the job a month later, officials say.
He even showed up to court when the suspect was prosecuted and “testified as his handler showed the jury where he was hurt,” Alamance County District Attorney Sean Boone reported in a 2024 Facebook post.
Burlington is about a 35-mile drive northwest from downtown Durham.
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