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Betty Long says she is still neighbors with dog attack victim David Fear

March 2, 2017

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

Two and a half months after dogs attacked her outside her house and killed her next-door neighbor, 86-year-old Betty Long returned home. Long gave an interview to KSBY in which she discussed her multi-decade relationship with her deceased neighbor David Fear, the man who is credited with saving her life.

Shortly after noon on Dec. 12, both of former Grover Beach Police officer Alex Geiger’s dogs chewed though a fence in a Grover Beach neighborhood and attacked Long. Fear, 64, went to assist Long, and the officer’s Belgian Malinois and German Shepherd turned their aggression on Fear.

The Grover Beach man died shortly after the brutal attack.

In the KSBY interview, Long said she managed to call 911 and say the dogs were eating Fear and herself. At one time, she though she was dying, Long said.

Long suffered a broken pelvis and a broken shoulder during the attack. Because of the attack, Long underwent a shoulder replacement and then spent time in a rehab facility.

Upon returning home on Sunday and seeing the location of the dog attack, Long said she could not believe what happened there.

The elderly Grover Beach woman said she met Fear when he was a teenager and she was working at a bank. Long and Fear were close for years and next-door neighbors over the last 17 years.

They would hold barbecues together, and Fear still called her his banker prior to the fatal dog attack, Long said.

“We are still going to be neighbors that are going to support each other,” Long said.

During hard times, she thinks about how Fear will get her through it, Long said. The Grover Beach woman is currently walking with a cane and requires home health care.

Prior to the attack, Long was a very independent woman.

Geiger, 25, who recently resigned from the Grover Beach Police Department, is facing two felony counts of owning a dog trained to attack while failing to exercise ordinary care. If convicted, he could spend up to three years and eight months behind bars.

The former officer’s Belgian Malinois was euthanized following the fatal incident. SLO County Animal Services returned the German Shepherd to Geiger, but then took the dog back shortly after CalCoastNews published a report stating both dogs took part in the attack.

Geiger is currently free on $20,000 bail and scheduled back in San Luis Obispo court on March 20.


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It seems to me that the appropriate treatment for Geiger should be the same as for someone who killed a person while DUI. No doubt he did not intend to have that happen. However, his ignorance and recklessness in dealing with his dogs (depraved indifference?) produced that result just as a person who has been drinking should understand the dangers of driving while intoxicated and avoid driving to prevent them.


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You seem to forget there are laws for “people”, us and then there are laws for “special people” and Geiger is part of that class.


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DUI is different. You don’t practice and train to drive drunk….spending lots of time working on slurring speech, delayed reflexes and bad judgement. Most DUI are people who are barely under the influence and many people who are drunk can drive better than people who are sober. Not a defense of DWI, but a point of difference with Geiger and his pets.


He trained the dogs to knock people down, bite them in vulnerable places, chew off their hands, etc. When they did this with intensity and vigor, they were praised and told they were “good dogs,” etc. They learned, practiced and perfected the skills to attack and subdue human beings under Geiger’s expert care and training.


He spent hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars to get dogs who would do what they did. He dedicated himself to creating dogs who could do all this.


A slightly tipsy or mildly drunk person doesn’t have the pre-meditation and intent to maim and kill like someone who purposely trains dogs to do this.


If they punished Geiger the same way they would punish someone who killed his dogs I’d be happy. His dogs would have been deemed “Officers of the Law” had the tables been turned and Ms. Long chewed the paws off Neo, causing him to bleed to death.


Kayaknut is correct. There are laws used against the people and there are laws for cops, to protect them from the people they abuse. This is one example. There are many, many more.


If your idea of Law Enforcement required officers to commit acts and behave in a way that would be deemed criminal activity by a serf….your concept of law enforcement is nothing more than police state tyranny.


Police are above the law. This is wrong. This will hurt us. This is truly evil and nothing good will come from such a thing. History is replete with lessons to prove my point.


Geiger should go to prison for at least 20 years for what he did and police dogs should be taught only to sniff cadavers and find people….not kill them.


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$20,000 bail after causing the death of one person and almost causing the death of another. The same bail was set for a Burger King employee who stole cash from the business. There is definitely something wrong with our system.


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20,000 is an insult. The incredibly low amount bail screams “Cops are worth more than regular people.”


Just imagine if Mr. Fear and Mrs. Long had gone over the Geiger’s place and bit his dogs, killing one and injuring the other.


They’d each have 100K in bail minimum and they’d each go to jail for many years….for killing one dog and injuring another.


But since a cops dog killed someone and gravely injured another…well, it’s not that big of a deal. They’re just people! It’s not like they have badges…..


Get a good look at the psyche of Police State America folks. Get a good hard look. We have no worth as human beings in the eyes of the police. We’re suspects, and we must submit and obey.


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Police create a psychology of fear and intimidation. Divest. “Wherever there is great property, there is great inequality… for one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor.” Adam Smith


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