A city in Washington state has agreed to pay a $250,000 settlement after a man who was shot with a Taser, beaten, and bitten by a police dog during an arrest in 2016 filed an excessive-force lawsuit against the department. David E. Lewis Jr. was unarmed during the arrest, in which he suffered serious injuries to his leg and was hit at least three times with a metal flashlight, according to his lawsuit. Lewis also had his face ground into the pavement when officers stopped him on the sidewalk to serve a misdemeanor warrant, his lawsuit alleges. The 56-year-old had an extensive criminal history at the time of his arrest, but was carrying just a jug of laundry detergent in one hand and a phone in the other when officers pulled up to him and boxed him in with their vehicles around 2 a.m. on Feb. 18, 2016. The lawsuit alleges that, despite Lewis’s lack of aggression, one officer pulled out his Taser while another released Kato, a large German shepherd, and told him to attack.
