A man is facing an animal cruelty charge after police say he was caught on camera beating a dog inside an elevator at a Brickell condominium.
Karim Fathi Ellaisy, 21, was arrested Thursday on a charge of animal cruelty with intent to injure or kill, an arrest report said.
According to the report, Ellaisy was caught on video abusing the 6-month-old Siberian Husky in an elevator at the Brickell Heights building ar 55 Southwest 9th Street.
The video showed Ellaisy walking into the elevator with the Husky, which started urinating on the floor. That's when Ellaisy yanked on the dog's leash, causing it to slam against the elevator wall, the report said.
Ellaisy was also seen slapping the dog, named Ajax, with an open hand multiple times before throwing it against the other elevator wall, the report said.
"Once our officers saw this they had enough evidence to go and make an arrest, they contacted the owner of the dog which wasn’t the person who committed the crime," Miami Police spokesman Mike Vega said.
Local
Ellaisy was booked into the Miami-Dade jail and later released on bond.
Ellaisy's attorney, Richard Cooper, said Ajax has no permanent injuries.
"This is a regrettable situation for my client. This is a case involving someone who is young and inexperienced with training puppies. The video is disturbing to my client as it is not who he is," Cooper said in a statement. "My client is being judged for the one moment in his life that he lost his cool and made a very bad choice. I am representing Karim because I know that people have bad days and do things they later deeply regret.”
Ajax was released to his owner, and animal control was contacted, the arrest report said.
“It’s really sad to see, if I see something like that I’m going to do something immediately," neighbor Avi Eli said. "I would react just like I saw someone beating a kid.”
