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Campbell police dog bites accident victim
By Ed Runyan
CAMPBELL
The Campbell Police Department’s police dog, Storm, has been involved in a third incident in which he attacked an unintended victim.
Angela Moore, 31, of Fairfax Avenue in Youngstown, was bitten on the hip Wednesday afternoon while sitting on the ground after police arrived to investigate a car accident on Gladstone Street.
According to a Campbell police report, Officer Eric Manning, Storm’s handler, and Officer Ryan Bloomer were out of their police cars, and Manning loudly asked the people involved if anyone was injured.
That’s when Storm ran toward Moore from behind Manning.
Storm had left the police cruiser through the open driver’s window and had apparently pushed aside a canine access door, the police report said.
Officer Bloomer saw Storm and yelled “dog,” but Storm bit Moore before Manning realized what was happening.
Manning pried Storm’s mouth open, removed him from the area and placed him back in the cruiser with the windows up and the doors locked.
Moore had puncture marks, and officers called for an ambulance for Moore, but she refused treatment.
Officer Manning apologized to Moore and her family and took photographs of the injury, a scrape mark on Storm’s nose, and two access doors inside the cruiser.
Back at the police station, officers determined that Storm had forced open the sliding canine access door to the cruiser, which would explain the scrape on his nose, police said.
Officers chained the canine access door shut until the city’s mechanic can inspect it, the report said.
Manning said a possible explanation for Storm’s behavior is that he thought Manning was in danger because of Manning raising his voice to the crash victims.
Storm has not shown any change in behavior that would account for the biting, Manning said.
If pushing open the canine access door is found to be the reason for Storm’s getting loose, it would be the second time.
At 2 a.m. Sept. 30, Storm was on patrol with his previous handler, Officer John Gulu, when Gulu saw three juveniles at Bright Avenue and 15th Street.
Gulu left his patrol car to speak to the juveniles when a fourth person came from across the street behind him, the report says.
The dog, which was inside the car, saw the person approach and pushed open the car’s center console sliding door. He jumped out of the driver’s side window. The man who was walking from behind Gulu quickly moved toward the juveniles, and the dog bit one, a 15-year-old girl, on her right arm.
Gulu quickly recalled the dog and put him back inside the car, locking the center sliding door, the report says.
In October, Atty. Lynn Sfara Bruno wrote to the Campbell law director, saying the 15-year-old girl has a “possible” claim regarding the bite.
In a November 2011 episode, Storm took down an 8-year-old boy playing in his grandmother’s yard.
Storm and Gulu were off-duty, and Gulu had let him loose in a fenced enclosure in his neighborhood. Before he could re-leash the dog, Storm got over the fence and went after the boy. The boy was dragged to the ground but not bitten, police said.
The boy’s parents filed a lawsuit in that matter last October.