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SLO County Sheriff’s K9 attacks officer

September 30, 2015

K9 4By JOSH FRIEDMAN and KAREN VELIE

A San Luis Obispo Sheriff’s Department K9 tasked with catching a fleeing car thief in Arroyo Grande attacked a California Highway Patrol officer on Tuesday who, too, was pursuing the suspect. Officers then charged the suspect with resisting arrest resulting in serious bodily injury to a peace officer.

At about 7 p.m., the CHP officer noticed a man in a stolen vehicle parked near the corner of Branch and Garden streets in Arroyo Grande, according to the CHP. The suspect then fled the car and headed for the Arroyo Grande Creek bed with the officer in pursuit.

Arroyo Grande Police officers, sheriff deputies and sheriff’s K9 “DJ” assisted in the search of the suspected car thief.

During the pursuit, the sheriff’s K9 attacked the CHP officer biting him in the arm.

“The officer got a little too close to DJ as he was working the incident and bit him on the arm, resulting in a minor injury that just broke the skin,” said Tony Cipolla, sheriff’s department spokesman. “The officer was taken for treatment. No stitches, no broken bones.”

Authorities eventually captured Michael Fordyce, who reportedly fell and injured his leg while fleeing.

Officers booked Fordyce into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of resisting a peace officer resulting in death or serious bodily injury, auto theft and resisting arrest, according to the San Luis Obsipo County Sheriff’s Office website. His bail is set at $25,000.

DJ will be off duty and under observation for the next two weeks.

“Our protocol is for the incident to be documented,” Cipolla said. “At the same time, the K9 will be placed under an in-house quarantine for two weeks for observation to see if the K9 has any ill effects from the incident.”

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An idiom to consider….”.Don’t bite the hand that feeds you.”


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“two weeks for observation to see if the K9 has any ill effects from the incident”. I’m guessing not working is about the biggest punishment you could have handed this K9.


Mistaken bites are measured in inches with those high strung dogs. Should have waited for the handler to pull the dog back.


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Yeah, I agree. The police dogs get just as amped up as the police do.


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Just an FYI – any dog involved in a bite (California) is automatically put on a 10 day quarantine to ensure that the animal is healthy and the victim doesn’t have to seek any treatment for rabies. It’s California Health and Safety Code.


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Thankful the dirt bag was hemmed up. And the reason he was charged and considered responsible for the officers injury is that because of his actions of evasion, the moment he decided to flee he assumed total and complete liability for any actions to apprehend him. The dog biting another officer is simply a risk of having a trained animal on scene. The suspect would have been charged with murder if a responding officer would have hit a telephone pole rushing to the scene too and dies. With actions, especially illegal actions, comes responsibility what is wrong with you people!


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Then why is it during a high speed chase the perp is not charged with attempted murder for every civilian they pass while driving their car at a high rate of speed, again a LEO is more important than a regular citizen.


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Actually, the fleeing criminal would be responsible for any deaths related to his actions, police or civilian.


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You should be held responsible for YOUR actions, not someone else’s. Otherwise we would could start prosecuting the bad parents of 30 year old criminals.


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I’m surprised that no one is thanking this officer for his work in catching this creepola.

Well, I thank him,

and I’m grateful he put himself on the line to do this job. Takes special people to face this crap everyday.

Thank you officer! And heal well.


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Repeating garbage propaganda. The job of a police officer is extremely safe. 7-11 clerks also have to deal with this kind of crap everyday. Coal miners have to deal with all kinds of dangers and discomforts every day so that people don’t freeze to death in the winter. Electrical linemen have one of the most dangerous jobs every day and electricity is paramount to your survival. So why is it that we don’t see the same kind of effort to give recognition to these people? Because police unions love to play on people’s fears and represent their members as heros. The guys makes anywhere from $130k to $230k a year and very few of them take real risks to protect people.


There are some that do, and to them I say thank you, but that doesn’t make the rest of them heroes by association.


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A felony charge of auto theft and misdemeanor resisting would have been completely proper …. BUT …. the charge resisting with serious bodily injury is about as bogus as it gets as there is no proximate cause between the idiot car thief’s behavior in running away and the bite to the CHP Officer.


It is plain and simply that the Sheriff’s Office trying to cover its ass by overcharging in a case where the police dog and the handler screwed up. I predict the felony resisting charge will be dropped like a hot potato.


Luckily some innocent citizen was not horsing around in the creek or they may have been munched as well.


With this type of bite behavior the dog now becomes a huge liability for the Sheriff’s Office.


Personally I think that tracking dogs and drug detecting dogs are great but the ones that are taught to be attack dogs are a risk to the public and the city/county budget.


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No problem for the Sheriff’s department if the dog attacks a bystander and sues the department, it is only taxpayer money, it’s the same mentality many government agencies have, “it is not real money and no skin off our backs if it cost the taxpayers a few dollars, we still get our budgets” attitude. Until the right person is held accountable the attitude will continue.


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Relax…… K9s make less “mistakes” than people. I was a K9 handler in the past, and “generally”(not always) when a cop got bit it was he/she that got in the dog’s way. It’s nothing “personal” with the animal, their just following orders and they enjoy doing the work. They have no problems licking their “victim” the next day, it’s a one time thing. I never heard of anyone being killed by a K9, safer than real bullets.


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It’s a win win for LE, DJ goes on paid administrative leave and the CHP officer will get an early disability pension for the physical and emotional trauma he suffered..


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resulting in a minor injury that just broke the skin.


Officers booked Fordyce into the San Luis Obispo County Jail on charges of resisting a peace officer resulting in death or serious bodily injury,


Jesus Suffering F**K


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It’s the typical double standard.


Also, if my dog bit some, the county would have put it down by now, no?


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Your dog probably didn’t cost thousands in breeding and training. If it doesn’t have rabies, which it most likely does not, it would never be put down until it’s a geriatric.


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I agree with both of the above.


But why is bail only$25,000?


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Because society continues to degenerate and there is no room at the County jail for this level of offense, that’s why. I, for my part, will pay my share of all taxes necessary to lock up everybody who needs to be locked up. Privatize incarceration and ship them out-of-state if we need to keep obtain more inefficiencies, but I’m o.k. with more County and CDC jail funding at this point.


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“At the same time, the K9 will be placed under an in-house quarantine for two weeks for observation to see if the K9 has any ill effects from the incident.”


Huh? Dog bites officer and the dog might have ill effects? I’m thinking any ill effects belong to the officer.


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Well, if the dog got some cop blood in its mouth, they need to see if all of a sudden the dog starts biting people for no apparent reason and then coming up with excuses after the fact about how the dog felt he was in jeopardy.


Sorry, couldn’t resist.


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I believe somehow the dog missed his rabies vacc and they’re quarantining for that reason. An animal will show rabies symptoms much sooner than a human, which is why dogs are quarantined. A skunk, raccoon or other wild animal, on the other hand, would be euthanized and its brain examined for rabies immediately. A Police trained K9 is a valuable animal so they wait, instead. Perhaps they don’t want to admit this very serious mistake was made or perhaps he’s just now due for another rabies vacc.


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Mike, this is one of those rare occasions when authorities actually follow the regulations the rest of us have to abide by. It is standard to quarantine an animal if skin is broken (plus it has to be reported, etc). All kinds of things happen when a dog bites.


It’s silly and over-bearing in most cases, but like all things bureaucratic, if there’s a 5% safety issue, well that’s worth the other 95% suffering through it. The old “one is too much” mentality as it were (or the “what if it was YOUR kid…”).


After a couple of instances (two or three?) the animal is killed. Sorry, “put down.”


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