Tulsa Teen Bit, Busted For Assaulting K-9 Officer

A Tulsa teen was arrested for assault and battery on a police dog Saturday morning after a routine traffic stop ended in the recovery of a stolen truck.

Police say Antonio Juan Monroy was one of three men in pickup truck that ran a stop sign near 32nd and Urbana at about 5 a.m. An officer on patrol pulled the truck over in the midtown neighborhood, and two of the men jumped out and started running.

One of them, 18-year-old Mario Mediano, was caught after police saw him running down the railroad tracks in between east and westbound lanes of the Broken Arrow Expressway, according to an arrest report.

Monroy, also 18, was tracked by a K-9 officer to where he was hiding under some bushes.

"The dog came up on him pretty suddenly, and he did attack the dog," said Sergeant Tim Lewandowski of the Tulsa Police Department. Monroy kicked the dog in the head multiple times, and the dog bit him in the leg.

"The dog was doing what the dog is trained to do, to grab hold of him and hold him," Lewandowski told News On 6.

Officers learned that the Nissan truck the teens were in had been stolen the night of May 12. The license plate on the truck actually belonged to a passenger car, Lewandowski said.

The third man, who didn't run from police, was not arrested. Officers said he apparently did not know the truck was stolen, and confirmed from his cell phone that he had called Mediano for a ride home from a downtown club.

Monroy was taken to the hospital for treatment of the dog bites then booked on complaints of possession of a stolen vehicle, resisting arrest and assault and battery on a police dog. Mediano was booked on complaints of possession of a stolen vehicle and failure to stop for a stop sign.

The dog seemed to be OK.