The Thornton Police Department said a Douglas County sheriff’s deputy was not on duty but was on call and handling the K-9 unit, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois named Freia, when it escaped from his vehicle and mauled an 11-year-old shih tzu named Annie.
The police report said it took four people and several to wrench free the Malinois, which is similar to a German shepherd, from the smaller dog.
“It was shocking. It was stunning,” witness Brent Erickson said. He was watching his daughter play in the soccer game at Trailwinds Park in Thornton when the attack occurred. The deputy, Greg Wilson, was also attending the game.
“The dog attacked the little dog, clamped on to it, was shaking it,” he said. “(It) obviously looked like it was trying to kill it.”
Wilson sustained bite injuries to both hands. The shih tzu’s owner, Karen George, rushed her dog to a pet hospital, where it died. George was also taken to a local hospital with “health complications” that police said were triggered by the incident.
According to police, the K-9 unit broke through a barrier in Wilson’s vehicle as George walked her dog by on a leash. Wilson told police the dog eluded his grasp and escaped through the car’s window.
On Monday, the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said the sheriff contacted the shih tzu’s owner to apologize.
“Our hearts go out to the owners of the dog that was killed,” Sheriff Tony Spurlock said in a written statement. “As dog-lovers ourselves, we know how hard it is when a family loses a pet. We assure them that we are conducting a thorough internal investigation into how this happened and we are fully cooperating with the Thornton Police Department.”
The K-9 will remain quarantined, per police procedure, until at least Dec. 31. It is trained in drug detection and patrol work. Thornton police cited Wilson with an animal attack and a dog at large.
“That dog was much more dangerous than your average dog,” Erickson said. “The thing that was concerning was that the handler didn’t have any commands that he could tell the dog to stop. There was no controlling it whatsoever.”
Petr Spurny, who trains dogs through his Morrison business K-9 Specialty, said handlers should be able to call off dogs and that strict training is critical.
“As we build his aggression and capability of taking man down we want to make sure that he’s also social enough and responsive,” Spurny said about trained dogs.
(CBS Local - Dec 22, 2014)
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