Zappala releases details about fatal K-9 encounter
Port Authority police officers fired a dozen shots at Bruce Kelley Jr. in the moments after he fatally stabbed one officer's K-9 partner, Aren, on Sunday along the East Busway in Wilkinsburg, and the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office says the stabbing was one step toward justifying their lethal force.
District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala is investigating, but said deadly force would be justified if it were necessary to prevent Kelley, 37, from avoiding arrest; if he had committed or attempted a forcible felony, such as an assault; if he were attempting to escape with a deadly weapon; or otherwise if he would have posed a danger to human life if not arrested immediately.
Zappala said the “Rocco's Law” amendment made hurting or killing a police dog a second-degree felony: “If you take that dog's life, that is and that should be considered a forcible felony.”
An estimated 350 law enforcement officers — many flanked by their K-9 partners — attended the memorial service for Aren on Thursday morning, with a procession that ended at the law enforcement officers memorial on the North Shore. Several staff members from the Western Pennsylvania Humane Society walked dogs from the Western Avenue facility to the memorial, and about 100 civilians turned out on the cold gray morning.
“This is not about a dog, necessarily. This is about an animal that's part of a police unit,” Zappala said later.
The confrontation began Sunday afternoon, when two Port Authority police officers confronted Kelley and his father, Bruce Sr., over public drinking in a gazebo along the path that runs parallel to the East Busway.
In the scuffle with the two officers, Bruce Kelley Sr. was pepper-sprayed twice before he was subdued and arrested; Bruce Kelley Jr. pulled a folding knife with a 4-inch blade — not 14 inches as previously reported — and fled down the path as police called for backup.
For about 16 minutes, Kelley walked through Wilkinsburg surrounded by as many as nine officers from the Port Authority, Wilkinsburg, Edgewood and Swissvale. A short video clip Zappala played for media Thursday showed the officers brandishing Tasers, a baton, pepper spray and one handgun as Kelley crossed a parking lot near the busway's Hamnett Station.
Zappala said Kelley was oblivious to their commands to stop and drop the knife. He spat out or ignored their pepper spray; at least six Taser barbs could not penetrate his thick jacket and overalls; an officer trying to disarm him with a baton stepped back when Kelley turned back at him with the knife; and Kelley was boasting that the officers could not stop him.
When more officers arrived with the K-9 — after the group moved beyond the view of video cameras — Kelley again made a threat.
When officers told Kelley that they would release the dog, Kelley replied, “If you release the dog, I'm going to kill the (expletive) dog,” Zappala said.
Aren grabbed Kelley's left arm, and Kelley stabbed him at least twice, including a fatal thrust to the snout that severed an artery in the dog's tongue. The two Port Authority police officers who had responded with the dog shot and killed Kelley, with Aren's handler, Officer Brian O'Malley, firing 10 shots, Zappala said.
Zappala emphasized repeatedly that under police policy, the use of a dog to subdue a suspect is the last resort before deadly force, and all the other steps leading up to it had failed. Even so, he had reached out to local police chiefs to start reviewing how they use their police dogs.
“In accordance with police training, the dog is the last level in the use of force before you can lawfully — and that's not the conclusion we've reached — before you can lawfully use deadly force,” Zappala said. “You can't let (Kelley) walk. He's not rational, it appears; he has a deadly weapon. What if a hostage comes into play?”
His review of deadly force still has to consider what was being said between Kelley and the officers, the exact time line of the incident and what Kelley's state of mind may have been, Zappala said.
Matthew Santoni is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-391-0927 or msantoni@tribweb.com.
