81-year-old woman mistaken for burglar bitten by Coon Rapids K-9

An 81-year-old woman is recovering after being bitten by a Coon Rapids K-9 officer Sunday morning.

Police say officers responded to reports of a person in a black coat walking suspiciously between yards in the 2700 block of 121st Lane. The caller indicated that she was scared after hearing pounding on her garage door only minutes after the initial sighting.

When officers arrived in the area, they saw a person carrying a flashlight slip into a backyard shed. Coon Rapids Chief of Police Brad Wise said at that point, officers called for backup and gave the individual 10 to 15 verbal warnings.

“The officers continued trying to communicate with the person – ‘we have a number of officers here, we have a police dog, and eventually we’ll send him in’—and they received no response at all. No sound, nothing,” said Chief of Police Brad Wise. “Ultimately, that silence led to a terrible outcome.”

Once police entered the shed, they realized their suspect was an elderly woman.

Police were able to wake a family member in the house who explained that the woman did not speak English .

The woman’s son-in-law told 3 HMONG-TV that the 81-year-old lived at the home and was trying to find something in the shed when the incident occurred.

The family has since obtained an attorney and declined to comment for this story.

The Coon Rapids Police Department posted a sequence of the events as well as audio of the incident on their Facebook page.