A Black woman was mauled in 2020 by a Brentwood police dog after resisting arrest for shoplifting. The California native has filed a lawsuit claiming officers used excessive force when siccing the canine on her that February afternoon.
According to a Facebook post by the Brentwood Police Department, Talmika Bates, 24, and three other persons were said to have stolen $10,000 worth of merchandise from the Ulta Beauty Supply (in the Streets of Brentwood Shopping Center).
The three women, including Keilaysha Usher, 24, and Ramiah Armstrong, 22, met up with Adrian Benton Jr., 21, in a nearby getaway car to “flee the scene.” All four have been apprehended and brought into custody.
Brentwood Police Department officer identified Benton’s car at a nearby major intersection after it sped through a red light.
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He tried to block the car with his vehicle, but instead of stopping, Benton rammed the car into the front end of the patrol car. The car attempted to drive away, but while fleeing the scene collided into a street curb. After the crash, all four of the suspects ran.
But before Bates was detained by the arresting officers, according to a federal lawsuit filed in Northern California by the woman, she was found hiding in some bushes. One of the officers, Officer Ryan Rezentes, allowed his police dog, Marco ze Zeliner Uzlabint (nicknamed “Marco”), to viciously attack her without warning.
Marco has been trained for basic patrol work, tracking and narcotics detection, and has been under the command of Rezentes since 2015.
During this altercation, the dog mauled the woman’s head so savagely that her scalp had to be reattached to her head, the lawsuit reveals.
Bates claims in the lawsuit that Rezentes’ German Shepherd “sunk its teeth into the unarmed woman’s head.”
The document further alleges that Rezentes “ignored Ms. Bates’ chilling screams” and “stood by and watched his canine viciously maul the young victim,” in an altercation that led to her scalp being torn off her head and “exposing bone and tissue.”
