‘You have the wrong person’: Lethbridge police dog injures innocent man

Friday morning Ryan Ruzek received a wake-up call at his south side Lethbridge residence, he’ll never forget.

“I was sleeping, then a dog jumped on my arm and started dragging me around,” Ruzek said.

He says a Lethbridge Police dog pulled him out of his bed and officers handcuffed him.

Ruzek says he was then taken outside while in his underwear, and then was placed in the back of a police car.

“It was like a nightmare, waking up having a dog chewing on your arm and you have no idea why,” Ruzek said. “I yelled at them a few times ‘you got the wrong guy.’ How does this happen?”

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It was like a nightmare, waking up having a dog chewing on your arm and you have no idea why," Ruzek said. "I yelled at them a few times 'you got the wrong guy.' How does this happen?"

Eventually Ruzek was released when police realized they had the wrong man.

The Lethbridge Police Service was responding to a 911 call of a domestic assault. Police were told the suspect they were looking for was in a bedroom and would be assaultive towards police.

When they entered the residence the only man they found was Ruzek.

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“You just don’t go in somebody’s house and let a dog attack him, it’s not right,” Robert Hamil, who witnessed the incident, said.

Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "You just don't go in somebody's house and let a dog attack him, it's not right," Robert Hamil, who witnessed the incident, said.

Hamil was visiting a friend at the house at the time of the incident and says police did provide verbal warnings that a police dog was going to enter the home.

He also claims the officers did not serve a warrant to enter the residence.

“There was no warrant to go in the house or anything,” Hamil said. “And I didn’t have the opportunity to close the door and lock it. They wouldn’t let me, they sat me down in the chair.”

Ruzek’s arm was treated by EMS after the incident. It is cut and bruised, but not seriously injured.

He says he was forced to miss three days of work as a result of the injury.

“The way they did it was the wrong way,” Ruzek said. “I know people make mistakes, but holy.”

Ruzek is not pressing charges and isn’t worried about his arm, but he would like an apology.

As of Monday afternoon, the Lethbridge Police Service had not reached out to Ruzek.

Police would not grant Global News a request for an interview about the incident.