The Salt Lake City Police Department has ordered a black man on the knees to be attacked with his hands in the air.

When police arrived at Jeffery Ryans’ home one morning in April, the 36-year-old was shocked but said his reaction was almost instinctive.

Growing up as a Black man in Alabama, he said, you are taught to work with. Put your hands up as you are told. Get on the ground when they say that.

That’s what he was trying to do on April 24 when Salt Lake City police were called to his home after someone heard him arguing with his wife.

Officers’ body camera footage shows Ryans was smoking a cigarette in his backyard – he says he was about to leave for his job as a train engineer – when officers shone their lights on him and began to screaming.

“Get on the ground!” shouted one officer, while his police dog barked. “Go to the ground if you will be bitten!”

Ryans dropped what was in his hands and put them in the air.

He recalled in an interview that he was confused. He did not know where to go or what to do: one officer shouted for him to come to him, while another shouted for him to get on the ground.

He was afraid if he did the wrong thing, he would be shot.

“I did not run,” he reminded him. ‘I did not fight. I just worked together. We’ve been through this. We’ve seen this. Always cooperate with the police, no matter what. “

Bodycam shows that although Ryans nodded to the ground with his hands in the air, the K9 officer still struggled to attack his dog.

The dog, Tuco, leaned on Ryans’ left leg, the footage shows. Even when another officer sat above Ryans and handcuffed the man, the K9 officer continued to instruct his dog to “hit” – and Tuco responded by biting and shaking at Ryans’ leg.

“Why are you doing this?” Ryans screamed, according to the video. “Why are you biting me?”

“Good boy,” the officer said to his dog, while Ryans screamed in pain.

(Warning: the following video contains violence and swearing.)

It’s body camera video that Ryans cannot watch right now. It is too difficult to watch the dog bite, pull his leg, knowing that injury has led to multiple surgeries, a lost job and has limited his ability to play sports with his children.

“I felt like a chew toy,” he said. ‘I did not know why this happened to me. That’s what went through me. But why?”

Ryans has taken the first steps toward filing a lawsuit against the Salt Lake City Police Department. In a statement of claim, which is required before a case can be filed, his attorneys, Daniel Garner and Gabriel White, argue that the use of force by the officer was unnecessary – and caused an injury that could have been prevented if the officer ‘performed’ the appropriate actions ”upon arrest of Ryans.

They say Ryan’s has nerve and tendon damage, infections and difficulty walking. Doctors have not ruled out the possibility that he will have to amputate his leg.

White claims that officers reacted as they did because his client is Black.

The lawyer, who is white, said he has been in similar situations where he had an argument with his wife or in the middle of the night in his backyard to let his dog out. But the police never come, especially not with a K9 dog.

“What else is there between the two of us that this could happen to him, but I could not imagine that I would happen to me?” he said. “No one has ever been shown to my house.”

Salt Lake City police officials said they could not comment on Ryans’ case because of the expected lawsuit.

It’s not clear from the body camera footage that police called to Ryans’ home, but the man said it was not his wife.

Police tried to arrest Ryans because his wife had submitted a protective order last December and he was not in her home. Court records show Ryans was dealing with domestic violence prosecutors for an incident that happened around that time, but upload documents do not provide any other details about what happened.

Ryans said his wife had told him the protective order had been lifted, and that he had been back in her home for weeks before police were called in April. He did not know that her request to lift the protection order was still pending – so he was technically in conflict with it at the time of his arrest.

Ryans is now being prosecuted for a breach of that protective mandate, but no due dates have been set.

The man, who has lived in Salt Lake City for more than 15 years, says he wanted to talk publicly about what happened to him at a time when people were protesting for months in support of Black Lives Matter and opposition to police brutality.

He says police often treat black people differently, and he wanted Utahns to see that happen here.

Ryans says he worked hard to get where he is. He went to college, has a career and has raised a family with his wife in a house she owns. But he said that when the officer ordered his dog to bite him, it turned out that none of that mattered.

“People need to know that black life matters,” he said. ‘Everyone is interested, but you just can not treat people differently because of their religion than their skin color. I am developing myself to reach where I am at the moment. I should have the same respect as others. We do not get it. ‘