Vancouver police K-9 dies after stabbing

Suspect in court

On Wednesday morning, Karuo made a first appearance in Clark County Superior Court on suspicion of first-degree criminal impersonation and harming a police dog.

Police encountered Karuo, who had outstanding warrants, Tuesday evening after receiving a call about a suspicious person. Just before his arrest, he sustained dog bites and was shocked with a stun gun.

Harming a police dog is a class C felony with a maximum sentence of five years in prison. The court also may impose a civil penalty of up to $10,000 for killing a police dog.

Karuo, accompanied by a Trukese interpreter, said little during his hearing and kept his head bowed.

Karuo also is accused of violating his supervised release conditions in a pending stolen vehicle case, Deputy Prosecutor James Smith said. It’s possible the allegations against Karuo could change once the prosecuting attorney’s office files formal charges, Smith said.

Judge Derek Vanderwood appointed Vancouver attorney Gregg Schile, who was not present at the hearing, to represent Karuo. Schile also is defending him in the other matter.

Smith requested that Karuo’s bail be set at $200,000 and that bail in his pending case be revoked.

“(He) poses a serious risk to law enforcement and the community in general,” Smith said.

Vanderwood set bail at $125,000.

Support for Ike

Several officers with the Clark County Sheriff’s Office, including Undersheriff Mike Cooke, showed their support for law enforcement by attending Karuo’s hearing.

“I and my other brother and sister law enforcement officers were in the courtroom today to show support for Officer Anderson and his family, who’s obviously going through a very tough time right now. Any time a law enforcement officer is hurt or killed in the line of duty, including K-9 officers, it hurts,” Cooke told media after the hearing. “So it’s important for us as law enforcement family to show support to our grieving colleagues and their families.”

Cooke said law enforcement officers are as dependent on their K-9 partners as their human partners.

“Each and every one of these types of incidents hurts us to the core,” he said. “But, it’s important for people to know it’s not going to deter us from doing our job. We are still going to be out there on the front line every day doing what we need to do to keep these communities safe, and we’re not going to let somebody like Mr. Karuo stop us from doing that.”

Toby Dittrich and Bridget Smolen of Vancouver attended the hearing “to support the (Vancouver Police Department’s) K-9 unit and brave officers who lead these dogs. And, to express disgust over this senseless act,” Dittrich said. “K-9 officers never say no and always serve without fear. …Hopefully, the officer will heal and get a new K-9 officer.”

Ike was a Belgian Malinois who went into service in 2012. Vancouver police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said he started work when he was about 3 years old, after 400 hours of training to certify him as a search and drug-sniffing dog.

Kapp said Anderson plans on having a private memorial ceremony with his family. The department intends to hold a memorial service as well, though the date hasn’t been set.

‘Losing a friend’

Police dogs live with their handlers through their careers and into retirement, and the bond between handler and dog is more profound than with a typical pet dog, Clark County Sheriff’s Deputy Brian Ellithorpe said.

“I leave my home pet at home when I go to work, whereas this dog stays with me the entire time,” Ellithorpe said of his K-9 partner.

Ellithorpe has been in the sheriff’s office K-9 unit for 14 years — seven with his current partner, Saver — and is the office’s lead dog trainer. Handlers and dogs learn to communicate and read each other through their body language, he said, and they spend the majority of the day together.

“We spend more time with our dogs than we do with our family,” he said. “It’s almost as if it was a human partner, but this one agrees with you all the time.”

The county’s entire police dog community is feeling Ike’s loss, Ellithorpe said.

“It’s just so emotional for everyone involved, because you’re losing a friend, one you get to play with every week,” he said. “It’s a huge loss for us, because we’ve become a team, all of us.”

Other K-9 deaths

This isn’t the first time a police dog has died in the line of duty in Clark County. In 2011, the Clark County Sheriff’s Office lost police dog Kane after a suspect stabbed the dog. Sheriff’s office K-9 Dakota was shot and killed in 2007 while tracking an armed suspect who allegedly threatened to “kill a cop.”

Anderson’s previous K-9 partner, Farley, was stabbed in the chest while trying to subdue a man in 2006. Farley survived his injuries and remained on the force until he died in 2011.