Citizen Police Review Board Examining Use Of Police K-9s

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PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- There are new questions after a man was shot and killed, and a police dog fatally stabbed during a confrontation last month.

Now, Pittsburgh's Citizen Police Review Board is looking at how police K-9s are used.

Bruce Kelley Jr. was shot and killed after he stabbed a police dog that had been released by Port Authority Police after Kelley refused to follow commands.

It happened in Wilkinsburg, and actually involved a Port Authority Police K-9, so the Citizen Police Review Board has no jurisdiction, but the board still wanted to take up the issue.

"Nine uniformed police can't apprehend him without killing him or getting that dog killed?" asked Gayle Sappie, a former jail guard who had met both Kelley and his father.

She came to speak to board members about what happened.

"That man was walking away from those police," said Sappie. "He had heavy clothing on, so he can't move as fast as he wants to. Number two, he had a knife. It's not a gun."

"I love dogs. I raise dogs, but a human being is a human being," Richard Stewart, first vice-president of Pittsburgh's NAACP branch.

Tim Stevens from B-PEP told the board: "The fact that the man said, 'If you send the dog, I'm going to a kill him. Why send him?"

The Allegheny County District Attorney says Kelley ignored officer's orders to stop. And that a Taser and pepper spray were used numerous times, unsuccessfully, before the dog was released.

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Kelley allegedly stabbed Aren, the Port Authority K-9 twice. Two Port Authority officers then fired at Kelley, killing him, investigators said.

The Board's Executive Director Elizabeth Pittinger says to expect the board to make a ruling or finding on how police dogs should be used in the coming months.

"In terms of putting canines out there, that seems to be a question," said Pittinger. "If his handler, Aren's handlers in Wilkinsburg, should have even let him go."

Investigators say the incident started when Kelley and his dad were drinking and got into a confrontation with officers.