An Orange County attorney has said Orlando police used excessive force against his client, a 12-year-old boy accused of breaking into an elementary school, who was badly mauled by a police dog, News 13 reports.

Police arrested the boy earlier this month, with two others, after they broke into Shingle Creek Elementary School, according to News 13. Authorities say they ordered the three boys to stop and get on the ground; two complied, and the third, they say, did not. In response, they set the police dog on him.

The boy, who turned 13 on Friday, spent three days in the hospital. Now, he has to return to the doctor on a weekly basis to check for nerve damage. Bradley Laurent, his attorney, told the Orlando Sentinel that his arm is still too swollen to diagnose.

“This kid is going to need extensive rehab,” Laurent said, counting three separate bites. “There’s no telling if he needs surgery to repair any nerve damage, and he may need plastic surgery.” News 13 reports that the stolen items were school supplies.

According to the Sentinel, the two other boys also charged in the burglary say that their friend had stopped and was complying with officers when the dog attacked him.

“It shouldn’t have happened,” Laurent told News 13. “No matter what they were doing in terms of being on the property, that didn’t warrant harming anyone.”

“I would imagine that they have enough training to restrain a 12-year-old. I don’t see why it would be necessary to release a dog. A dog that you know is going to cause some serious injury.”

Image via Shutterstock. Contact the author of this post: brendan.oconnor@gawker.com.