WILKINSBURG, Pennsylvania -- Police shot and killed a man Sunday afternoon near the East Busway in Wilkinsburg after they said he stabbed a Port Authority police dog to death.
Bruce Kelley Jr., 37, was pronounced dead at the scene of the incident on Whitney Avenue after 4 p.m.
The K-9 officer, Aren, was a 5-year-old German shepherd who worked patrol and explosives. He had been on the job for four years, said Chief Matt Porter of Port Authority police.
According to superintendent Charles Moffatt of Allegheny County police, the incident was first called in to 911 dispatch at 3:37 p.m. after two Port Authority officers on patrol were involved in an altercation with two men — a father and son — whom they found drinking in a gazebo along the busway near Hamnett Place Station.
When the officers confronted the men, Mr. Kelley became agitated, said Port Authority spokesman Jim Ritchie, and physically fought with one officer, who was taken to an area hospital with lacerations on his hands and to have X-rays taken of his arm.
“It was a knock-down, drag-out,” Chief Porter said of the fight.
After the initial incident, Port Authority officers requested backup as they searched for the two men.
Wilkinsburg Councilwoman Vanessa McCarthy-Johnson, who lives near the incident, said she heard a Port Authority police officer telling residents to make sure their children were inside. When Ms. McCarthy-Johnson asked the officer what was going on, he told her that a man was walking around with a knife. By this point, more officers had joined the pursuit.
According to Ms. McCarthy-Johnson, six officers followed the man, leaving a short distance between themselves and the suspect while attempting to get him to put down the knife.
Mr. Ritchie said Mr. Kelley refused their repeated commands to stop and drop the knife.
Seventeen minutes after the first call, at least two officers tried to incapacitate Mr. Kelley with a Taser, Mr. Moffatt said. Because Mr. Kelley was wearing a thick coat, the shock device had no effect. Three or four more officers deployed their Tasers, as well, the superintendent said, and when those failed, the K-9 handler released Aren.
“He had a knife, and he stabbed the dog,” Mr. Moffatt said. “The dog went down, and the officers shot and killed the man.”
He could not say what caused the officers to deploy their Tasers when they did and said the investigation was ongoing.
“You release the dog when you think it’s proper to release the dog to stop this person from doing what he or she is going to do,” Mr. Moffatt said.
At least two police officers fired their guns, and they are on administrative leave pending the investigation, Chief Porter said.
The Allegheny County district attorney’s office will determine whether it was a justified use of force. Mr. Kelley’s father was detained near the scene, said Mr. Moffatt, who could not say if charges would be filed.
Port Authority officers raced Aren to the Pittsburgh Veterinary Specialty & Emergency Center in Ohio Township immediately after the stabbing, and a few K-9 handlers gathered there. Aren was pronounced dead about 4:30 p.m. Later, dozens of officers gathered at the animal hospital as a flag-draped casket was removed carrying the dog's body.
“We’re definitely going to show the K-9 officer the respect that’s due to him,” Chief Porter said.
Mr. Moffatt said a necropsy will be performed to determine the extent of Aren’s injuries. The dog was not wearing a ballistic vest, Chief Porter said.
“It’s a horrible thing. He’s a member of that officer’s family,” Chief Porter said. “He’s a member of the law enforcement family. It’s a difficult time right now.”
“They depend on each other every day of their life,” Mr. Moffatt said.
Aren’s death came two years and one day after Pittsburgh police K-9 Rocco died on Jan. 30, 2014, at the same veterinary hospital. Rocco, too, had been stabbed in the line of duty after his handler, Officer Phil Lerza, sent him into the basement of a home in Lawrenceville to flush out a man who had fled from police.
A sheriff’s deputy spotted John Rush, a sex offender wanted on a bench warrant, and Rush lunged toward his gun and struck him in the face. The suspect then fled into the basement of a home on Butler Street. Officer Lerza warned Rush that he would send in the dog, but Rush refused to come out, and when Rocco went in, Rush lunged at him, swinging the knife at the dog.
Rocco survived the initial attack but died two days later.
Rush was sentenced to serve at least 17 years 9 months — and up to 44 years in prison — for the variety of counts for which he was convicted, including killing a police animal, disarming a law enforcement officer and aggravated assault on a law enforcement officer.
Rocco’s death led local legislators to introduce legislation to stiffen the penalties for people accused of harming or killing police animals, and the sentence went from having a maximum prison term of seven years up to 10.
Copyright 2016 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tribune News Service
