Police Dog Put On Leave After Attack Dog Ignores Handler’s Command In Second Biting Incident

A Spokane police dog is grounded after it attacked two men walking down the sidewalk singing Beatles tunes early Friday.

Spike, who ignored his handler’s shouts to stop, is the same German shepherd that mauled a man outside Playfair Race Track in May.

This time, police paid hospital expenses for Greg Smith, 32, whose leg was etched with several puncture wounds.

Police said Smith did not intentionally provoke the attack, in which the 100-pound dog chomped down on his right leg as he walked home.

Jeff Kendall, Smith’s companion, said Spike also tried to bite his leg through a long overcoat before officer Kevin King got the animal under control.

“I thought, ‘This dog’s going to kill me,”’ said Kendall, 36. “I was lucky I had a pretty thick coat on. He was gnawing at my leg.”

Spike, a four-year police veteran, went through a retraining program last summer after sinking his teeth into Jerry Hurtt’s arm near Playfair, said police Capt. Chuck Bown.

Hurtt had no medical insurance and the city expected to pay part of his medical costs. City Attorney Rocky Treppiedi could not be reached Friday to comment on the outcome of that case.

Hurtt insisted he did nothing to provoke the dog, which is trained to help police track and catch suspected criminals. But police were skeptical.

“I cannot believe the guy was just sitting there and the dog bit him,” Police Chief Terry Mangan said at the time. “The way the dogs are trained, they’d never just come up to somebody and bite them.”

On Friday, police put Spike on administrative leave while the latest attack is investigated.

“To have this happen again raises some safety concerns for the public, and that’s the Police Department’s primary concern,” Bown said.

Shortly after the 2 a.m. attack, a patrolman took Smith to Deaconess Medical Center, where medical workers cleaned his wounds and gave him antibiotics and a tetanus shot.

On Friday, Smith sat at a west Spokane apartment where his mother, Pat Smith, fussed over his wound.

“I thought it was terrible,” said Pat Smith, alarmed that Spike ignored King’s commands. “Shoot, he should have more control than that over it.”

Police are trying to figure out what happened, Bown said. They suspect Spike, who wasn’t on a leash, attacked because the singing agitated him and one of the men didn’t immediately stand still.

Just before the attack, King was exercising Spike in the parking lot at the Spokane County Health District, 1101 W. College, Bown said.

Smith and Kendall were walking home from Mootsy’s, a downtown bar, where they drank Rainier beer after Kendall’s shift as a cook at Frank’s Diner. They were laughing and singing “Martha, My Dear” when Spike spotted them about 70 yards away.

As Spike charged, King yelled for the dog to stop and told the men to stand still. The dog charged on. “Either the dog did not hear or was too focused,” Bown said.

Both men say they stopped in their tracks; police say Smith moved backward.

Spike might have responded to the “Stand still” order, Bown said.

“When he hears the people he’s focusing on ordered to stand still, he’s supposed to watch and make sure they don’t move.”

Police said Spike sniffed Kendall’s leg before biting Smith.

“The cop was saying something like, ‘You guys shouldn’t have been making noise,”’ said Kendall. “The guy should’ve had him on a leash or something.”

Smith, a self-described animal lover, said he feels sorry for Spike and hopes police don’t “fire him or put him to sleep or anything.”

He winced while tenderly touching his leg. “The police said, ‘He wouldn’t have bit you if you’d been singing Garth Brooks songs.”’

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo