BRANDON, Fla. — A teenage boy’s family is suing the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, claiming a deputy allowed a K-9 to attack the boy while he was on the ground for over a minute and didn’t pull off the dog even after the teenager was handcuffed.
The call came in on May 14, 2023.
Deputy Sarah Ernstes’ body camera recorded as she responded to a Riverview neighborhood.
A Lyft driver reported that he went to do a pickup and encountered three teenage boys and three teenage girls.
He canceled the call because his vehicle wasn’t big enough to fit all the passengers.
The driver reported that as he turned his car around to leave, two teen boys threw rocks at his vehicle and assaulted him when he got out of the car.
A third male juvenile suspect got in his car, drove a short distance, and crashed it into a street sign.
That boy, later identified as 17-year-old Roderick Smith, Jr., jumped out of the car and away.
Deputy Ernstes teamed up with fellow Canine Deputy Kalin Hall to track the suspect.
“He’s responding to commands and doing what he’s supposed to do”
On her body camera video, you can see Ernstes retrieve her canine partner, Roy.
“Come here, buddy. You're a good boy. Yeah!” she told the dog.
Roy is a Belgian Malinois-German Shepherd mix that the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office obtained 15 months earlier.
He was named in honor of Sergeant Brian Roy Lavigne who was killed in the line of duty in 2021.
According to a press release from HCSO, which includes a video, Roy specializes in the detection of narcotics.
Ernstes and Roy received at least 480 hours of training together and underwent state certification before the canine was deployed in the field.
According to HCSO policy, “The Canine Section is utilized to assist in law enforcement operations related to criminal apprehension, locating missing or endangered persons, evidence detection, crowd control, and promoting favorable public relations.”
As part of that policy, handlers “may only use that force with a canine that is necessary to apprehend and gain control of a suspect. When such use of force is no longer needed, the canine should be withdrawn as soon as practical, safety permitting.”
“Alright, we’ve got the dog on the ground,” Deputy Ernstes said as she began to track.
“Immediately after giving the track command, the dog puts his nose on the ground,” said former canine officer Tony Tyson.
Tyson was a canine handler for the Tampa Police Department for 15 years and used to certify dogs for other agencies.
“He's responding to commands and he’s doing what he’s being asked to do,” Tyson said, as he watches Roy tracking in the body camera video.
He also said Deputy Ernstes is following standard protocol as the search for the suspect begins.
“She’s doing everything by the book, it looks like,” he said.
Tyson said canine officers often face potential danger.
“When you’re searching for an unknown, you have to treat everybody as though they’re armed,” Tyson said.
There’s also the possibility that the dog can injure a suspect or civilian.
That’s why they are only used on felony calls.
Roy finds Roderick
Three minutes into the search, the dog’s pace picks up.
Roy finds Roderick near a fence.
“Show me your hands. Show me your hands. Show me your hands. Put your hands up,” Ernstes called out as the dog grabbed onto Roderick’s leg.
“Ok. Get him off. Get him off. Get him off,” Roderick said.
“I'll get him off,” Ernstes said 11 seconds into the encounter.
But the dog does not release Roderick, who weighed only around 100 pounds at the time of the incident, until more than a minute later.
Deputy Hall is standing nearby with a flashlight, gun, and taser as the boy holds up his hands and tries to surrender.
The dog knocks Roderick to the ground seconds later.
“He's being apprehended by the dog, but he's not truly in custody until they got handcuffs on him,” Tony said.
“Put your hands behind your back,” Deputy Hall commanded.
“I'm trying. I'm trying,” Roderick said.
“It's behind. It's behind. It's behind. It’s behind,” he muttered, indicating to deputies he is trying to comply.
“What they're trying to do at this point, in my opinion, is get him handcuffed so they can release the dog,” Tyson said.
That’s about 30 seconds into the incident.
“Please will you get the dog off? Please. Please”
“Get him off,” Roderick screams. “Get him off, please. Please get him off. “
“I've got him. I've got him. I've got him,” Hall said, as he grabs Roderick’s arms at the 39-second mark.
But Deputy Ernstes doesn’t give the dog a release command.
“I'm sorry, I’m sorry. Ok. Get him off, please? Please get the dog off,” Roderick begs. “Please, will you get the dog off? Please. Please.”
The last handcuff clicks 60 seconds into the encounter. Roderick has said the word “please” 14 times but never used profanity.
At that point, Ernstes still has not given Roy a command to release.
Bodycam video of the incident can be viewed below. Viewer discretion is advised.
Body camera video from Deputy Kalin Hall
Body camera video from Deputy from Sarah Ernstes
“When she gets ready to release him, there should be an out command or off command. At this point, I haven't heard it,” Tyson said.
“Go ahead and take your time with the glove,” Deputy Hall told Ernstes as she finally grabbed Roy by the choker and attempted to pull him off.
“It’s alright. He's just on his pants,” she responded.
“What do you need Sarah? Stop. Back up. Back up,” Hall said as she finally pulls him off, 75 seconds after the initial contact.
“I’m bleeding everywhere”
When the dog released, a gushing wound to Roderick’s femoral artery was exposed.
“It hurts. It hurts,” Roderick screamed. “I'm bleeding. I'm bleeding everywhere.”
“It hurts so bad. It hurts so bad. Oh my God, it hurts so bad!” Roderick said.
“We've got an ambulance coming for you. Relax,” Hall said. “Somebody got a tourniquet? Get one out.”
“It typically does not end like this. Of all the dog bites I've seen over the years, I've never seen one that ruptured a femoral artery,” Tyson said.
“Get a tourniquet high on his right leg. Undo it all the way,” Hall told the other deputies. “Get it nice and high.”
That tourniquet probably saved Roderick's life.
He was rushed to the hospital.
The incident report said, “the defendant actively attempted to twist away from the K9 and grab the dog”.
Ernstes told her supervisor about the incident minutes after it happened.
“He just had him mostly by the pants, but he kept spinning like a thing, and he wouldn’t hold still or I would have got him off,” she said. “And then he was laying on top of him. I'm like, bro, you want him off, but you’re not listening.”
In a subsequent review of the incident, Deputy Ernstes is quoted in the report as saying, “To prevent K9 Roy from apprehending the suspect’s groin, Deputy Ernstes held onto the collar until K9 Roy and the suspect were in safer positions for K9 Roy to be removed from the suspect's thigh.”
“It really felt like ten, twenty minutes”
“There was a part of me that was saying this might be it,” Roderick said in a recent interview.
According to his attorney, Roderick underwent multiple surgeries and ran up $250,000 in medical bills.
He said he thinks about it often.
“All the time. Every day, thinking about it. And I get a constant reminder every time I feel a sharp pain in my leg every day,” Roderick said.
Roderick’s attorney, Anthony Halmon, sued in state court and recently got the case transferred to federal court, alleging civil rights violations.
Roderick pleaded guilty in juvenile court and takes responsibility for his actions.
But he said nobody should go through the pain he endures daily.
“To me, it felt like it was just another day on the job for them. Like, this is normal to them,” Roderick said.
Canine handler promoted after incident
A review of the apprehension found that Deputy Ernst did not violate department policies.
She has since been promoted to Corporal.
Records show HCSO has conducted 10 separate K9 Utilization Reviews involving Ernstes since 2021.
These are incidents in which her canine made physical contact with a suspect during apprehensions.
The reviews are required under the department’s canine policy.
Some of the contacts occurred just days apart.
We requested reports showing details from each encounter more than a month ago and are still waiting for the records.
Roderick said that 75 seconds will haunt him forever.
“It really felt like ten, twenty minutes. It just felt like they had a dog on me for a lifetime,” he said.
Roderick’s attorney has filed a civil lawsuit against Sheriff Chad Chronister and Deputies Sarah Ernstes and Kalin Hall, alleging civil rights violations, which is moving forward in U.S. District Court.
Motions by the sheriff’s office to have it dismissed have been denied so far.
A Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson told us they don’t comment on ongoing litigation.
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