Blind Man Allegedly Attacked by Police Dog Inside Church

Kyle Maxwell, who is legally blind, was cleaning his kitchen when several police officers burst in, tackled him to the ground and allowed their K-9 to attack, he has alleged.

Maxwell lives in the hostel at First Congregational Church in Cooper-Young, a neighborhood of Memphis, Tennessee. He is suing the city in state court, alleging police negligence after officers mistook him for a burglar last year.

"I think that the police entered the building looking to hurt someone," Maxwell told Newsweek.

According to Maxwell, church staff called the police on January 24, 2021, to report two men breaking into the food ministry. Body camera footage from the Memphis Police Department showed six officers arriving with a K-9. They announced themselves and called out that they were releasing a dog, which is standard procedure.

The problem was that First Congregational Church is very large—the building actually comprises three separate buildings that are adjoined by breezeways.

Maxwell's attorney Jacob Brown told Newsweek, "By the time they got to the connected building where my client was, a completely different part of the church, there was no way my client would've heard that initial announcement."

The Memphis Police Department's canine unit has a manual for standard operating procedures. Its policies state that during a search, K-9 handlers must make an announcement before unleashing their dogs.

"The Handler, prior to releasing his canine, will announce in a loud clear voice that the dog will be released," said the manual seen by Newsweek. "If no one responds within a reasonable time, the dog will be released to search. The Handler may disregard announcing, if there is a present danger to him/her."

In a body camera video, officers entered the hostel where Maxwell lives without any warning or announcement. Then they opened the door to his kitchen and lunged at him, tackling the terrified man to the ground.

"Suddenly the door burst open and several men pushed me down and a dog was biting me," said Maxwell.

In the footage, he screamed, "Help, help me," and "Who is this?"

Maxwell is legally blind, with no vision in one eye and 10 percent vision in the other. The officers handcuffed him and said they had to take him outside.

"Of course, being a Black man in the South, I was not willing to go outside," Maxwell said. "I thought I was about to be murdered. What would you think if several men broke into your kitchen in the middle of the night, knocked you to the ground and set a dog on you?"

At that point, another resident told the officers that Maxwell lived in the church. A church director also verified that they had the wrong man.

The police dog's bites inflicted bloody wounds on Maxwell's lower leg. His tailbone was injured when an officer knocked him to the ground, leaving him in pain for weeks and making it difficult to sit, stand, walk and sleep. And he said his psychological scars are severe.

"I would literally wake up screaming multiple times during the day and night," he said. "[A few days] after this incident, I was coming out of my bathroom next to my bedroom and I nearly collapsed. A friend of mine was walking by and kept me from collapsing."

Newsweek reached out to the Memphis Police Department for comment.