'Get him off, please!': Florida K-9 clamps down on accused carjacker’s backside during chase
MARION COUNTY, FLORIDA: A Florida K-9 gave an accused car thief a taste of its jaws when the K-9 caught him by biting his backside after a police chase, a bodycam video released on Friday showed.
The incident happened on July 31 in Ocala at around 4:30 pm when deputies were on alert to find a stolen vehicle. After a long search K-9 Cpl Calvin Batts located the stolen vehicle in the area of Southeast 32nd St and Southeast 3rd Avenue and tried to conduct a traffic stop, the Marion County Sheriff’s Office said.
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At the location, Batts found their suspect, later identified as 29-year-old Matthew Gebert, trying to flee the scene but he failed miserably as Batts’ K-9 partner, Jax, took him down after a short pursuit, grabbing hold of the suspect’s rear end and holding him on the ground, according to bodycam video.
In a pursuit caught on bodycam video footage, Batts was later heard yelling: 'Show me your hands! The sooner you show me your hands, the sooner I take the dog off. Let me see your right hand!'
"Get him off, please!" the suspect begs the deputy. "Don't fight," Batts says. "Soon as I get you in handcuffs, soon as the dog goes off, OK? Hold on buddy, hold on."
However, Gebert was eventually freed from Jax’s mighty jaws and taken in the custody by the officials. The 29-year-old accused is facing a charge of grand theft of a motor vehicle, fleeing to elude a law enforcement officer, possession of cocaine, possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting without violence, driving without a valid license, and violation of probation. Gebert was being held at a county jail without bond.
The heroic acts executed by the Florida K-9 are known to all. Last year in December, another suspected carjacker was snuffed out by the Florida sheriff's K9 police dog. Michael Lewis, suspected of stealing a vehicle was trying to hide under his mattress to ditch the deputies but Justice, a police dog with the Sheriff's Office K-9 unit, detected the 59-year-old suspect almost immediately.
"Cpl Miller began giving K-9 announcements at every door of the residence before sending K-9 Justice into the room to search for Lewis," a statement from the Hernando County Sheriff's Office read. "After clearing a handful of rooms, Cpl. Miller gave additional K-9 announcements before entering a bedroom."
Lewis was taken into custody and charged with grand theft of a motor vehicle and resisting without violence.