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Dog that killed Grover Beach man was police K-9

January 5, 2017
Kings County Deputy Sheriff Alex Geiger and "Boss" with a demonstration at Hidden Valley Park in Hanford, California in 2013.

Kings County Deputy Sheriff Alex Geiger and “Boss” with a demonstration at Hidden Valley Park in Hanford, California in 2013.

The dog that attacked and killed a 64-year-old Grover Beach man was an Exeter Police Department K-9. Grover Beach Police Officer Alex Geiger was the dog’s handler during his time with the Central Valley police department.

Geiger left Exeter to join the Grover Beach force in September. That month, Geiger purchased the Belgian Malinois named Neo from the city of Exeter for $5,287.50. Geiger brought Neo to Grover Beach as his personal pet.

On Dec. 13, Neo attacked Betty Long, 85, in front of her Grover Beach yard. Long’s neighbor, David Fear, went to assist the woman, and the Belgian Malinois turned his aggression on the Grover Beach man.

Fear lost six pints of blood as a result of the attack. The dog bites severed two arteries in his arm, and Fear developed an infection from the bites. Fear died in the hospital four days after the attack.

Long suffered a broken pelvis and broken shoulder. She is still in a rehab facility.

The Exeter Police Department said in a news release that Neo was trained and certified in narcotics detection and all areas of patrol operations.

Sources from within the department told CalCoastNews Neo had some training and behavioral issues. Despite being trained as a police K-9, the dog was never utilized in response to a call.

Geiger, 25, only served on the Exeter force for one year before joining the K-9 unit. Most law enforcement agencies require officers to work for seven years before joining the K-9 unit. Geiger previously worked as a Kings County Sheriff’s deputy in 2012 and 2013.

The Grover Beach Police Department hired Geiger as a standard police officer. Grover Beach does not have a police K-9 program.

Following the attack, Geiger turned over Neo to San Luis Obispo County Animal Services, which euthanized the dog. Animal Services completed its investigation into the incident late last month and submitted the case to the SLO County District Attorney’s Office. Prosecutors have yet to announce whether they will file charges.

Geiger is on paid administrative leave from his Grover Beach job.


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I’m curious as to why he paid more than 5 grand for this POS dog?


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It’s not easy to get a dog who is trained to chew hands off people. He invested a lot of time into training this dog……probably was paid with tax dollars while doing it.


After spending all that time teaching the dog to terrorize people, he probably grew rather fond of it and felt a strong bond….fellow officers and all.


5 grand isn’t that much for a pure-bred dog who is trained to knock people down, bite them in the groin and chew their hands off. You’d have to spend more than that to train your dog to do it…..not to mention the fact that you’d be in jail.


But cops have different values than we do. They live in a different world, with different laws and a different principle of right and wrong than we serfs.


This dog was no doubt his pride and joy. I mean…..can YOUR dog knock someone down and kill them on command? Only a special dog can do that.


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Wanna see our finest in action? We do this to a cop and we will never see the light of day again. They do it to us and it takes months for the slightest consequence.


http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/officer-caught-on-video-punching-woman-resigns_us_586ec3d5e4b02b5f8588065f?cypi3ljp424oswcdi


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It is sadly ironic that when I commented on the original story of this tragedy that if citizens would be more prepared to defend themselves the outcome may have been somewhat less disastrous, I was severely criticized for introducing politics into the discussion by some of the very same people who are now bringing this around to a discourse on police immunity.


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Regardless of the level of training the dog had or any behavior issues it may have had, ultimately, the OWNER is responsible. This NEVER should have happened.

Due to the owners dereliction of duty, an innocent person lost his life, a woman was severely injured and a dog had to be put down…definitely a preventable tragedy.


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Doc T,


Well we can get rid of the cops or restrain them to the point they never leave the station.


Of course I don’t know who we will call for prowlers, burglars, thieves, child molesters and roving thugs who get involved in drug ripoff shootouts (like the one recently reported here on CCN).


I also don’t know who we will call for those unfortunate people suffering from mental illness who become uncontrollable.


Focus on the issue here:

A trained police dog was sold to it’s handler who failed to secure the dog properly. Police departments provide locking kennels and require the dog be locked up when not with the handler.


This dog owner is civilly and criminally responsible for this dog. Keep the pressure on the DA.


Finally, don’t blame the breed of dog. Blame the irresponsible dog owner and if you want the Exeter PD for selling the dog to the officer in the first place.


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Get rid of cops? No….how about scale back their “mission” from trying to prevent everything to investigating crime and apprehending suspects.


Modern police work is a violation of our rights! It is nothing more than a means of collecting fines and fees for the most part.


But that’s another discussion! This discussion is about the fact that there is a class of people who are above the law. Police lives are more important that YOUR life.


Even the police dogs’ lives are more important that YOUR life.


That’s the crux of the matter. This sociopath’s dog got out, roamed the neighborhood and murdered a neighbor and gravely injured another. If the owner/trainer/handler wasn’t a cop, he’d be in jail.


I’m sick of the double standard. You should be too.


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I mentioned in a previous post that all this would “leak” out, regarding the fact that the dog was trained to knock people down and chew off their hands and bite in vulnerable places. Cops like to train their dogs to do that….it makes them feel safe.


Here’s a simple question with a simple answer:


“Why isn’t this fatal dog attack being treated in the same manner as other fatal dog attacks?” IE, the owner of the vicious animal is charged with various crimes and incarcerated, etc.?


Answer:


Because he’s a cop and he’s part of the protected class!


Cops lie to us all the time—-it’s part of their job description. They lie to us to try to get us to incriminate ourselves. But if we lie to them….it’s a felony.


Cops brandish weapons all day. But if we do, we go to jail.


Cops break the speed limit. Not us.


Cops don’t get drug tested for anything. But we serfs can be forced to give blood for testing at the whim of a cop—-and we have to pay for the test AND the officer’s time!


Cops can and do drive drunk. A lot. Each and every cop I know has done this several times. But we cannot drive drunk without severe penalties.


Cops can keep vicious dogs. We cannot.


Cops’ dogs can kill neighbors. Our dogs cannot.


———————————————————————


The problem here isn’t really a dog problem. The problem is that we’ve allowed for and in some cases begged for a police state and a marauding band of thugs who enjoy general immunity from every crime they commit!


The sociopath who trained this dog to chew the hands off of people will not be treated like the rest of us. His life is MORE valuable than the lives of his neighbors in the eyes of the law.


This trend will not improve because people rightly perceive that they have no power anymore.


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I will submit that you’re not just a bit over the top, but uber over the top. Lotta accusation with absolutely no facts. Let’s see what Dow does with this and then comment


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I don’t think that DocT’s points are wrong for the most part but I do think that he greatly exaggerates in implying that cops are generally “a marauding band of thugs.” Some are, most aren’t. That doesn’t mean that the special treatment that the few bad ones get is right — he just shouldn’t make assumptions about all cops based on that.


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The problem with this topic and news site is that too many readers have been on the wrong side of the law and their cop bashing is their gnashing of teeth


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Clearly you are part of the deluded north county public safety cult. The readership of this site is largely conservative and upstanding citizens. So ponder that when you read these comments.


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RonHolt,


Let me state it like this: a significant percentage of cops are worse than the average citizen when it comes to:


1. on steroids

2. are perpetrators of domestic violence

3. are alcoholics

4. are corrupt


You can look for yourself and discover that I’m correct on all 4 points. Cops are not angels.


As for the marauding band of thugs….not all of them maraud. Many of them stand by silently and do nothing while the rest engage in thuggish behavior. There are plenty of examples of this right here in our little town!


Remember sheriff Fellows? He’s the guy who was super drunk and was doing 100mph in his hobby car on LOVR. He didn’t get into trouble.


Pretty much every police chief from every Central Coast city has been brought up on corruption charges in the last 5 years.


I can prove my assertions with local news alone! If you look to national trends and statistics, you’ll find that cops come in two varieties:


The marauding thugs

The silent tolerators of the thugs


When cops start arresting their own for doing the same things they arrest us for, I’ll change my tune. But let’s not lie to eachother….we both know they won’t and don’t treat eachother like they treat us serfs. Don’t pretend it’s not true, because you KNOW it is.


They are a protected class that enjoys general immunity from the many crimes they commit in the line of duty. That’s wrong!


In this case, a cop trained and kept a vicious animal. He knew the animal was vicious and deadly, BECAUSE HE TRAINED IT TO BE THAT WAY!!!


Paid vacation is all he gets.


You know damn well that if you or I had a dog with a history of violence, and if we trained that dog to knock people down, bite them in the groin and/or chew their hands off, we’d be in jail. We’d be considered monsters for keeping such an animal and would be brought up on animal abuse charges for training the dog to behave that way.


But cops? LOL! They pay good money for a dog like that!


This is nothing new. It’s just a local example of a national problem. Our police are nothing more than costume wearing thugs who are taught to commit crime and extract fines and penalties.


They learn to lie

They learn to taze

They learn to kill YOUR pets

They learn to kill YOU

They learn to protect their own

They learn to keep their mouths shut when their “brothers” commit crime

They learn that their lives, their pets, their jobs are far more important than anyone else.

They enjoy general immunity

They enjoy fantastic pensions and retirements

They know they can break all those silly DUI, speeding, animal cruelty laws with abandon….because they know that those laws are so they can put their boots on YOUR neck.


Certainly those laws don’t apply to them. No reasonable person could conclude otherwise. This case, among thousands of others, proves my point.


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Hopefully, there will be some charge against the officer/owner of the dog reflecting the death of a human. This is just not right that dog should have been loose. Perhaps the new policy should not be to sell the dog, even such a huge price, they might have known that the owner likely needed an insurance policy against just such behavior by this dog, that killed a man, and permanently damaged, if not physically, perhaps fearwise, another helpless elder.


Please take the officer off of holiday pay, and at the very least make him work every day, until his trial. There has to be honor among people who have such scary weapons at their hands. These breeds are never appropriate pets for anyone. Most especially after they have been trained to injure, maim or kill.


A very sad day indeed. What is the district attorney waiting for?


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Can’t wait to see how DA Dow is going to spin this to avoid charging another protected class person.


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Selling Neo, with his “training and behavioral issues,” was probably the worst decision that the City of Exeter has ever made.


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I would agree with you on that!


Police dogs are trained to do a job and are very high energy to boot. When a dog such as Neo is kept as a backyard pet and not exercised or trained, they go nuts. I’d imagine he got out by mistake, but still the end result was him doing what he thought was his job… Most great k9’s are very bonded with their handler and will only work when told to. So yes, Exeter didn’t do the Central Coast any favors by selling a dog that had too much a mind of it’s own.


My thoughts are with the Fear and Long families. A preventable tragedy for sure.


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