Police Release Attack Dog on 88-yr-old Sleeping Woman

RIVERSIDE – It was around midnight on January 23rd when Katharina Lambert, an 88-yr-old disabled woman, was sound asleep in bed as usual.

She never expected to be woken up and mauled by a large animal coming into her bedroom.


The animal immediately lunged on to her as she laid in bed wearing nothing but sleeping garments.

It “relentlessly” attacked her, according to reports, biting as hard as it could into her skin. The animal caused painful puncture wounds around her body.

It turns out that the animal was a police K-9 unit, trained to attack humans in ways that are much more painful and rabid than average dogs.

It happened because three police officers broke into Katharina’s home while she was sleeping — because, they claim, her silent burglar alarm was activated.

They did not make it known to Katharina that they were there, and they had no warrant to enter.

Officer Echevarria brought the attack dog inside with him.

They then released the dog into Katharina’s home without warning her.

“Echevarria knew, when he entered, that the dog was trained to bite hard, and to bite anywhere it could on a person’s body,” she claims.

The dog went straight to her bedroom and began biting her.

The attack was so relentless that officer Echevarria eventually had to come to the room and physically remove the dog in order to get it to stop.

With her body wounded and punctured, the officers then delayed medical care for Katharina unnecessarily, according to court documents.

She blames the police department and says that the officers are not properly disciplined.

She added that the department has created an assumption among officers that “it is permissible to unlawfully enter a person’s home, deploy a police K-9 to attack innocent people, refuse to accommodate a disabled person, and delay prompt medical care.”

She is now suing over unlawful entry, excessive force, municipal liability, supervisor liability, Americans with Disabilities Act violations, strict liability, battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress and negligence.