An RCMP dog bit a teenager during a missing person search last week.

Cpl. Deanna Fontaine, media relations officer with the Alberta RCMP, says the incident occurred Wednesday night, Jan. 19.

"Our police dog handler was on a pathway with our police dog, and a young male had approached on the pathway and caught our police dog by surprise. And our handler had pulled back on our police dog. However, our handler slipped on some ice."

She says the interaction occurred at 9:15 p.m.

"Our handler was unable to physically hold our police dog back, and our police dog did injure the youth involved. The handler was able to call off the animal immediately. However, the police dog had already engaged with the youth."

Okotoks RCMP confirmed that assistance for the search was requested from the RCMP Police Dog Service (PDS).

The dog assisting was out of Calgary and was not part of the Okotoks detachment.

"We had contacted Emergency Medical Services right away in order to provide any treatment that was necessary. And the parents were aware very shortly thereafter."

The teen's father, Joe Morigeau, said his son Joey, 15, was walking home from a friends house at night when the RCMP dog bit him in the bum and jumped on him.

"It was about 9:45 when we had the call from my son which was the first disturbing part because we didn't actually get a call from the officers, we got a call from my son. And he's a minor and 15-years-old, so he lives with us. And so we didn't even hear about it from the police."

Morigeau says the police had called EMS and that his son was sitting there with RCMP members.

"I guess he would have waited with the police until EMS arrived. He called me and said, 'Ya, dad, I was attacked by a police dog.' And of course all kinds of things go through your mind."

He says that he and his wife discovered that Joey was just down the street from them by using the location services on their Apple phones.

They jumped in the car and headed down right away.

Morigeau says the dog handler seemed very agitated and deflected all questions to the Okotoks RCMP.

"They were good with it. They answered, and they were apologetic."

Morigeau says they are evaluating their options for how to help prevent this kind of incident from happening again.

"The biggest concern is this could happen to anybody, and that's pretty concerning. You know, how do you prevent this in the future? And then, the other concern is what kind of longterm effects will this have on my son. Will he be afraid of dogs? Will he be afraid of police? You know, where's his head going to be at in the future?"

Cpl. Fontaine says it's unfortunate at that moment in time with the icy conditions that it happened because the handler could have otherwise possibly been able to prevent the interaction.

"It's unfortunate, really truly unfortunate that this happened and that this youth got hurt."

Cpl. Fontaine says the dog will not be put down as a result of the incident.

Although he was shaken up, Morigeau says Joey's doing even better than they thought he would be.

"The doctor said he's going to be scarred there for life which is concerning. But, you know what, at least he was bitten in a place that's going to be covered up all the time."

He said Joey was in a lot of pain but that he's doing alright.

"I would say that we got lucky...I know what kind of damage they can do, so we feel fortunate that he got away without being too hurt. Could you imagine if it was an upper body or face? That would have been tragic, even more tragic, right. But we feel fortunate that it was just a bite and then the dog jumped on him and knocked him down as opposed to what one of those dogs can actually do."

There were several Facebook posts and comments that night about helicopter sightings in the area.

On Thursday, Jan. 20, RCMP said there was a helicopter but that it wasn't associated with the search for the missing person.

Okotoks RCMP has since confirmed that the helicopter was actually involved in two separate incidents that night, including the search.

Cpl. Fontaine says HAWCS (Helicopter Air Watch for Community Safety) was actively involved around 9 p.m. and remained in the area until the missing person was located.

The Okotoks RCMP said that HAWCS was back in Okotoks again later that night searching for a stolen vehicle.

 

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