Off-Duty Police Dog Attacks Innocent Boy
“If you’re a K-9 cop, you have to have complete control of the dog. In a residential area, it shouldn’t be off a leash. I can’t have my dog off a leash.” — Terri Fitzgerald, mother of 13-year-old boy who was attacked without provocation by an off-duty St. Paul Police dog.
It’s easy to understand the frustration and anger of South St. Paul’s Terri Fitzgerald, who spent time in the hospital this week with her 13-year-old son Mitch, who received 16 stitches after an unleashed, off-duty police dog attacked him and bit him on the face until the dog’s handler realized what was happening and called him off, Mrs. Fitzgerald told the Saint Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch.
It was the second time since 2007 that the dog, Sarik, bit someone who wasn’t a police target, police said. Sarik’s handler is Officer Isaac Rinehart and they have appeared together on Animal Planet’s “K-9 Cops” television series.
A St. Paul Police Department spokesman told the Star Tribune that Sarik got off his leash Sunday evening while Rinehart was off duty. The boy was standing near a water tower in South St. Paul, doing nothing wrong. Department officials will decide if discipline is warranted after the South St. Paul Police Department investigates the case.
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