Man Maced After Asking Cops To Help His Dying Dog

New York Daily News | February 24 2005

A Brooklyn man was pepper-sprayed when he brought his dying dog to his local police precinct, it was revealed yesterday.

Jaime Johnson, 30, a maintenance worker from Bedford-Stuyvesant, claims he was unfairly treated by cops.

But police sources said officers acted properly to subdue what they described as a drunken man having a violent fit.

Johnson said he ran to the 88th Precinct stationhouse Saturday morning after his family's Shih Tzu puppy, Suki, was hit by a car.

"I was frantic. I was scared, and I didn't know what to do, so I figured I would go to the precinct and ask for help," Johnson said yesterday.

Johnson says he pleaded with cops to get an ambulance for the dog.

"Within three minutes of [getting] there, I was blinded for the rest of the day," said Johnson, who denied he was drunk.

Johnson said he was briefly put into a cell and then brought out and cuffed to a sink so he could wash his face.

He was brought to Woodhull Hospital for what sources said was a psychological evaluation.

While Johnson was at Woodhull, police sources said, the Sanitation Department was called to take the dog's body away, which is standard procedure, according to police.

Johnson and his fiancée, Twaina McLeod, 29, had no idea what had become of their pet until yesterday.

The couple asked for help from City Councilwoman Letitia James (Working Families Party-Brooklyn), whose office is looking into the matter.