A suspect should never test Maricopa Police Department’s ace canine cop, K9 Karma, or defy the officer who handles her. When her handler commands a suspect to lie face down on the ground, that suspect better do it, no questions asked.

It never turns out well otherwise, and anyone threatening or injuring a Maricopa police officer within sniffing range is doomed to feel Karma’s jaws of death locked, grinding, flesh-piercing with complete and uncollared wrath.

Such was the case on Oct. 12, 2023, when then 54-year-old Lawrence Bronson learned that lesson after he got into an angry tussle with Karma’s handler. The incident ended badly in his garage on West Miramar Drive.

He pulled into the garage after cops chased him and another suspect in the car from State Route 238 through the Acacia Crossings neighborhood after he refused to pull over.

It was then that Bronson learned the hard way just what the Belgian Malinois police dog could be.

The bodycam video, released by MPD today, shows Bronson refusing an officer’s command and being wrestled to the ground. When two other officers joined the driveway melee, Karma couldn’t be held back.

She latches onto Bronson’s rear right upper thigh, tearing a hole in his jeans like a furry buzz saw. Blood flies.

“Get the f*cking dog off of me,” Bronson pleads in a blood-curdling scream, face down as blood flows from his face onto the concrete.

More blood spills from the gaping thigh wound after several minutes of Karma refusing to let go, her dog collar breaking away in an officer’s hands.

An officer finally manages to pry Karma’s mouth away from Bronson’s leg. She then clasps her incisors on Bronson’s ankle and pants leg as the struggle continues, before holding momentarily and finally releasing from his bloody leg.

Karma’s handler, MPD Officer Jake Gomez, received bruising and lacerations to arm and knee before Bronson was arrested and jailed, police said.

Bronson faces five misdemeanor charges of DUI, driving with a suspended license, failing to stop and two counts of aggravated assault, records show. He was also later charged with felony counts of resisting arrest and aggravated assault on a police officer.

Bronson made an initial appearance June 18 in Pinal County Superior Court the charges of aggravated assault on a police officer leading to physical injury, and actively resisting arrest, records show.

The charges can each carry prison sentences of up to five years. The Acacia Crossings neighborhood sued him after this incident for unknown reasons.