Police Officer Bit by Prostitution Suspect

Two people suspected of negotiating for prostitution were arrested after running away from police officers, and one faces a felony charge for biting the arm of a pursuing officer, said.

The suspects were talking to each other in the Canal area late Thursday night when they bolted away as Sgt. Raul Aguilar approached them, according to Sgt. Lisa Holton. Aguilar pursued the man, Ladislao Mazariegos, 62, and tracked him down in the 3000 block of Kerner Boulevard.

Officer Kevin McDougald answered a call for more help and found the woman, Armetrius Leshon Coleman, 21, at a convenience store on East Francisco Boulevard. During a physical altercation between the two, Coleman bit the arm of McDougald.

“It was a pretty significant bite,” Holton said.

Coleman, a Brentwood resident who gave her occupation as a teacher, faces a charge of resisting an officer with the result of death or serious bodily injury, and her bail was set at $100,000. She also faces a felony charge of battery of a police officer and misdemeanors of loitering in public with the intent of committing prostitution and a probation violation.

Mazariegos, a gardener from San Rafael, faces the same resisting arrest and prostitution charges.

McDougald was treated and released from a local hospital.