Authorities have accused a man of deliberately releasing his dog to attack Austin police horses in Austin, according to an affidavit filed Friday.
Mounted officers were patrolling on Nov. 26 when they noticed a man with a dog that the officers said looked like a "'pit bull' type of dog," according to the court document. Officers said they saw the man, identified in the affidavit as 23-year-old Makel Rashad Farmer, "patting the underside of the dog as to get the dog agitated (become too aggressive) in the direction of the police mounted horses," the affidavit said.
As police were leaving Sixth Street, an officer felt his horse "act and move as if to strike out with both hind legs," and he heard another officer telling him to "watch out for the dog," the affidavit said. The officer looked down and saw Farmer’s dog "aggressively trying to bite the hind legs of" the horse.
Police were trying to determine whether the dog attack was deliberate, so they reviewed surveillance footage from HALO cameras posted in that area, the affidavit said. The video showed that Farmer followed the mounted police unit with his dog on his shoulder. There, he lowered his dog onto the street, the document said.
Farmer is being charged with interference with a police service animal, a state jail felony, the American-Statesman reports.
