By Don Jacobs
Knoxville News Sentinel
CAMPBELL COUNTY, Tenn. — Before Elko was killed with a blast from a shotgun aimed by a Campbell County animal control officer, the Knoxville police dog had uncovered 125 pounds of pot, more than a thousand grams of cocaine and flushed out 21 suspected felons from attics, woods, sheds and drain pipes.
Elko is the 5-year-old Belgian Malinois killed June 9 with a single blast to the chest from a 12-gauge shotgun in the Jacksboro area of Campbell County. The dog had attacked a woman in her 70s in the garage of her home after she tried to scare it away.
The woman, Gora Watts, was bitten on the upper right arm and pulled to the ground, according to a report filed by the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office.
The Knoxville Police Department bought Elko in March 2007 for $4,500 and teamed the animal with officer Jonathan Chadwell. Chadwell had joined KPD in November 2003. The dog was certified by the International Police Working Dog Association. Elko had been recertified by the association in March.
Records provided by KPD show Elko from 2008-10 was summoned 316 times for people searches, drug searches and apprehension of hiding felony suspects. In those three years, Elko was instrumental in seizing $26,586 in cash, 13 guns and three vehicles, records show.
Reports compiled by Chadwell show Elko captured more suspects with the threat of a bite than by actually attacking suspects. When Chadwell warned suspects holed up in attics, woods or sheds that he was going to send in his dog, most suspects begged for mercy and surrendered.
In one incident in June 2009, Chadwell sent Elko into a dark culvert after the suspect ran from his vehicle with something hidden in one hand, Chadwell wrote. The suspect has a history of aggravated robbery, assault and drug dealing.
The suspect hid in a drainage pipe and crawled deeper into the darkness when threatened with a police dog. Chadwell sent Elko in, who promptly found and bit the suspect. Chadwell called Elko off when the suspect said he would surrender. When Elko did not emerge from the pipe, Chadwell went in to find the suspect choking the dog, which had its teeth locked on the suspect’s right arm.
Chadwell ordered the suspect to bring the dog to him and the officer would command it to release the suspect’s arm. The man complied. The suspect underwent surgery to his right arm and Elko went to a veterinarian for treatment of unspecified injuries.
Records provided by KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk contain no notations of Elko being unruly or in need of retraining.
DeBusk, however, refused to comment when asked if KPD would have allowed Elko back among the law-enforcement ranks after it had bitten Watts.
“We’ll be glad to (comment) once the internal affairs investigation is complete,” DeBusk said. “But we don’t comment on policy and procedures until the internal affairs investigation is complete.”
The KPD launched an internal probe into the death of the canine. DeBusk said he was unsure when the investigation would be finished.
He did say KPD plans to replace Elko. He noted KPD already had money in its current budget to buy two new dogs, which would bring the total number of police dogs to 15, if Elko is replaced.
Chadwell kept his partner at home, as do all of the dog handlers at some time or another, DeBusk said. Each K-9 handler has a kennel at home.
“Most of these guys have several thousand dollars out of their own pockets for these kennels,” DeBusk said. KPD does not pay for the kennels, he said.
“It’s a full-time commitment on the part of these officers,” he said. “These guys are animal lovers.”
The kennel at Chadwell’s home consisted of a concrete pad with a metal fence secured with concrete blocks, officials said. Elko apparently escaped from his kennel during a violent thunderstorm that slung his dog house against the fence, shifting the enclosure enough that Elko could slide between the resultant opening.
At about 3:20 p.m. June 9, Watts was getting out of her car in her garage when she saw Elko outside the garage door, records show. Watts “clapped her hands and yelled at the dog trying to get it to leave and at that time the dog came at the victim and bit the victim on the right upper arm and pulled her to the ground,” states the Campbell County Sheriff’s Office report.
Watts’ husband, Fred Watts, struck Elko with a tree trimming pole saw to force the dog to release his wife, according to Otis Poore, the Campbell County animal control officer who responded to the scene.
“He said he hit it 20 times,” Poore said.
Fred Watts also shot at Elko twice with a pistol. Poore said he was unsure if the dog was struck with either round.
Poore said a CCSO officer was armed with a shotgun guarding the paramedics who were tending to Gora Watts in the blood-splattered garage.
Poore got on the scene about 15 minutes after the CCSO officer. No one at the scene realized Elko was a trained police dog, Poore said.
Poore said he first checked on Gora Watts and then got his shotgun to search for the dog that had no collar. He located Elko when he walked to the front yard.
“The dog saw me and started running toward me and I had no other choice but to shoot it,” Poore said. He fired a single round from the pump shotgun at a distance of about 30 feet from the dog.
Poore’s supervisor said he did nothing wrong.
In his three years as an animal control officer, Poore said he has never shot a dog.
“It really bothered me,” he said. “I couldn’t sleep Thursday night. It’s just something that had to be done.”
Copyright 2011 ProQuest Information and Learning