(Warning: The final image in this post is quite graphic.)
In an incident that brings up horrible memories of the worst times in the Civil Rights Movement, police let an attack dog loose on a young African-American woman who was reportedly restrained at the time, causing serious injuries.
According to Potomac Local:
21-year-old London Colvin, who is also a private in the Army Reserves, was at an off-campus party [Norfold State University, Colvin is a junior] when a fight broke out around 2:15 a.m. Sunday. Colvin reportedly refused to give officers information about what took place.
“She was at a party off campus. She said that a fight broke out, and she had nothing to do with the fight. She did say she was at the party, and her and her friends were leaving,” Whitney Dunn, the victim’s cousin, told the newspaper. “She was definitely being loud—she did admit to that.”
Colvin did not speak to the newspaper, instead electing to allow her cousin to act as spokeswoman. Dunn says that the victim was attempting to leave party when she was approached by an officer:
“Her and her friends continued to walk, and she said that she definitely continued to be loud, however, they were walking away. The two other police officers approached her—asked her to stop. Whatever the case may be, they had her down on the ground when the dog came. Two of the police officers restrained her on the ground, and then they allowed the dogs to attack her.”
For their side of the story, the police are making vague claims about the need to release a dog on the student because they apparently couldn’t restrain a 21-year-old young woman. Norfolk Police spokesman Daniel Hudson told Potomac Local:
Apparently there was a call for about 35 individuals who were partaking in a physical fight in the middle of the street. Once we have that multitude of people, we always have our canine officers respond out there with us for crowd management. There was an officer that was attempting to place the woman in custody for disorderly conduct. When [the officer] tried to place her in custody, she became combative against the officer. Another officer attempted to restrain her, but again, there were multiple people around, so the canine officer deployed the dog to restrain the woman so nobody would get hurt.
There is no evidence of Colvin’s combative behavior being offered at this time. But the student has 40 stitches to prove the extent of her injuries and according to Dunn, plastic surgery will be required to repair the damage. Colvin says she is seeking legal counsel and has been advised not to personally speak about the incident. Of course a picture is worth a thousand words; this is what her wounds looked like:
(Photo: HCBU Buzz)
