MAN BITES LA AIRPORT POLICE K-9 OFFICER
Man bites k9 officer at LAX
April 18, 2010 | 2:45 pm
A transient faced felony battery charges Sunday afternoon after he allegedly bit a Los Angeles Airport police officer and injured one of his colleagues,authorities said.
The name of the man was not immediately released, but LAX police officials said the incident took place about 11:15 a.m. Sunday on the upper level of the airport, just outside the Tom Bradley International Terminal.
Airport police officials said they received a report that a man had left an unattended bag in the terminal and was seen muttering to himself. When officers approached the man, he sprinted away while yelling unintelligibly.
The officers caught up to him outside the terminal and when they tried to detain him, he bit a K-9 officer in the left forearm, officials said. A second officer received cuts and scratches.
The transient, who had been stopped at LAX previously, was taken into custody without further incident.
"With 50,000 airport employees and roughly 61 million passengers annually, LAX police face the same challenges and dangers as those in most municipal law enforcement agencies," said Marshall McClain, president of the union representing 425 police officers and firefighters at all Los Angeles city-run airports.
The Associated Press
Posted: 04/19/2010 07:46:30 AM MDT
Updated: 04/19/2010 07:46:31 AM MDT
LOS ANGELES—Investigators have arrested a man for biting a Los Angeles airport police K-9 officer.
Airport police Sgt. Belinda Nettles says officers were investigating a report Sunday of a strange-behaving man who had left an unattended bag in a terminal at Los Angeles International Airport.
When officers approached the man, investigators say he ran while yelling unintelligibly.
Officers tried to detain him outside the Tom Bradley International Terminal and a K-9 officer was bitten on the left forearm, breaking the skin.
The man, described only as a transient questioned by officers in the past, was arrested and booked for investigation of felony battery.
The officer was treated at a hospital and released.
