Would you send your dog??? - Page 1

I know PDK9's are looked at more as equipment, especially in the military but would you send your dog into this situation???  I'm sorry but there was NO reason for this dog to die, he should have NEVER been sent IMO.  Granted I don' t know the whole story and "wasn't there" but it appeared they had this guy surrounded, I did not see any hostiges and no one appeared to be in immediate danger, why was the dog sent!!!????

It also appeared that the cops also shot the dog with friendly fire!!!

BEWARE this video is very disturbing, a police dog gets shot and dies.

I don't mean to insult the K9 officer no doubt he immediately felt horribly regretful, but arent there regulations for deployment???  Do you send your dog into an armed suspect waiting and warning he'll shoot the dog if it attacks???  I just don't get it!!! Please enlighten me...this is very upsetting!!

VIEWER DISCRESION STRONGLY ADVISED!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V4qmsJHUkBw&NR=1

Very disturbing indeed. There is no easy way to answer this question.

I don't really believe that PDK9s are viewed as equipment. I believe that most officers love their dogs very much and view them as partners.

With that said,  "Would I send my dog?"

Yes, as sad as it is, and as cold as it may seem to some, if the choice was to take a chance with a dog, as opposed to a human officer- (someone's father, brother, husband, ,son)- I would send the dog. I don't know the situation here, the clip is very short. I can't begin to judge the decision made under these circumstances by any officer.

Theresa

"If the choice was to take a chance with a dog, as opposed to a human officer"

This was NOT the choice in THIS situation, that is my point!!!  No one needed to act at that moment in time, just wait it out...the cops were undercover and the suspect wasn't pointing his gun up (if he was that is reason enough to shoot him) he wasn't running away??

If that guy was trying to flee  or was moving around being threatening etc.,  yes that's what the PDK9 is there for, but to send a dog into a guy who says "if you send that dog I'll shoot him" WTF, sorry doesn't make sense to me.  You are sending your dog in to DIE.

sorry... thanks for replying, this is just got me fired up!

The video is not too clear, it was dark and officers did not see to good, the guy was hiding his right hand (allegedly with the weapon). Officers start shooting with automatic weapon (at least it seemed to me like that) at the moment when the dog was released. Without intention to judge, condemn or claim anything I think that there was smomebody out there (an officer) who was a bit to nervous and started shooting when he heard the noise of dog being released. As far as I could see and hear officers were threatening to release the dog. That means that dog and the dog handler should be the ones to solve the situation until it is ordered differently (that's probably why they were called to the spot). The suspect throw something away when the dog came close (the thing he was hiding in his right hand), I could not see too good but I do not think it was a gun. Now, if it were not for the shots which killed him (and as far as I could see all came from the police) this dog would be able to solve the situation on his own. And  yes IN THIS SITUATION as we saw it on this video I would send my dog to attack rather than having a fellow police officer shot or killed. The dog stands far more chance than human in such situation. This guy was probably so drugged up that he would not hit a wall (provided that he had a weapon) let alone a lighning fast dog as the poor Malinois who got killed by his fellow officers. 

Unfortunate accident, mistake, call it what you want. It underlines one more time that joint training of dog units and "ordinary" and crime officers is of  enormous importance. They should get aware how dog units operate and what is to be done when they have joint operations, all in order to avoid such unfortunate incidents and loss of a fellow police officer for that poor dog was one.

GSDfan

Relax!  You asked for an opinion and Theresa gave one. I agree with her.  Based on the video, we know very little.  Have they been sitting there for ten hours or ten minutes.  It looked to me, like the dog gave the officers an excuse to shoot the suspect.  Without the suspect firing his weapon, they would have had to wait it out longer.  Couldn't they have gased the guy out?   Iwasn't there and I don't know the full story, but I hate to see a k9 go down.

Point taken Don, thanks for your replies.

I'm in Juv corrections, while it is worlds apart from this, the angst to get a situation resolved happens there too, and to me this is why it bothers me, it looks like that here to me as well.  I've been in a counseling de-escalation session with mentally ill/ irrational people for hours on end before...some staff will go as far as to provoke or unjustly restrain the resident just to resolve and end a situation/incident.  Although I don't agree that the dog should have been sent,  you guys are right by saying that I am reading into it and assuming too much...to me and my experience with impatient people thats how it came off to me.  Send the dog in and give us a reason to shoot his ass cause he'll try to shoot the dog. 

Regards

Kenan

Good eye!  I watched it again. I didn't see the perp throw the weapon the first time.  That makes it worse.  100% friendly fire.

Was this staged?  If not---stupid,,stupid..stupid..stupid..stupid..stupid...................

Throw a smoke bomb...shoot a tranquilizer dart.....shoot the perp....or  wait it out.   stupid...stupid..............

If they were gonna shoot the guy anyway,  why the hell send the dog to get shot too ?????????????

Seems they could have shot the guy without having to send the dog in,  NO reason that dog was deployed at all ????  They had they're minds made up before the sent the dog.

Don Corleone

Did you notice that: shots were heard, guy throws "the thing" (I am not sure that it was a weapon - he was hiding it and threatening to shoot just to make the police believe that he has a weapon) , guy gets hit, dog appears, dog gets hit. Whoever was firing unloaded his full magazine.  There was somebody out there with itching finger. Whatever he used ,MP5 or something else, there was no need for automatic fire, the guy could have been, if needed, taken out with two or three shots. However, since the dog was released there was not supposed to be any shooting from the police side, at least not until the dog is on the job, and definitelly no automatic fire. We can only hope that lessons will be learned from this not to have a similar incidents happening again.

One more thing, it is proven again that there is no such thing as friendly fire, whoever was under one will agree.