By Teri Figueroa and David Hernandez
The San Diego Union-Tribune
SAN DIEGO, Calif. — A man with a 7-inch kitchen knife stabbed a police dog during an arrest at an Encanto home Monday morning — an attack that came shortly after officers had shot the suspect using bean bag rounds.
The 22-year-old man was struck four times with bean bags during the encounter at the home on 64th Street south of Brooklyn Avenue, police Lt. Charles Lara told reporters.
Police said the 4-year-old dog, named Dexter, underwent surgery and is expected to recover. He has been with the department a year and a half.
The incident started about 8:30 a.m., when police received a 911 call reporting that a mother was having difficulty controlling her son at the home, Lara said.
An officer arrived to find the mother sweeping up broken glass from a picture frame. She told the officer that if police arrived, her son was “going to fight the police,” Lara said.
At that point, the son came to the door holding what looked to be a butcher’s knife, Lara said. Officers repeatedly told him to drop it. He refused, and police fired the less-lethal bean bags.
Although the son was struck, the rounds “had a negligible effect on him,” Lara said.
Officers released the dog, which bit the suspect on his left arm. During the struggle, the man stabbed the dog in the torso.
Officer Larry Adair of the K-9 unit said Dexter suffered a broken rib and ruptured spleen. He underwent surgery at an emergency veterinary facility and was in stable condition Monday afternoon.
Adair said Dexter is expected to recover and return to duty. K-9 personnel will slowly introduce him to “similar stimuli” to see how he reacts as part of his journey to recovery.
Dexter’s handler, whose name was not released, was not hurt.
“I can’t tell you how hard it is to see your partner, your friend, your pal, your best friend, stabbed — wounded,” said Adair, whose own police dog has been hurt in the line of duty.
He said it is not an easy decision to release a canine, but one that at times is necessary to protect the public.
“It’s awful, because we spend our time with these dogs,” Adair said. “They come home with us, they live with us, we take care of them. … But ultimately, at the end of the day, it’s a police service dog and that dog’s job is to help preserve human life. We know that as handlers. It’s very difficult to send them into harm’s way, but that is the job.”
Lara echoed similar sentiments, saying “we obviously never want to use any kind of force to take a person into custody.”
He continued: “This gentleman gave no indication that he was going to surrender, continued to be belligerent, (and was) armed with a knife.”
After the man was taken into custody, police had to use restraints “because he was not compliant and banging his head inside the police vehicle,” Lara said.
The man, who was taken to a hospital, could be charged with assaulting a police dog, displaying a weapon at an officer in a threatening manner and resisting arrest. Authorities were also looking at helping his mother obtain a protective order.
Formed in 1984, San Diego police’s K-9 unit, with 33 teams, is one of the largest in the country.
©2018 The San Diego Union-Tribune