Owners Want Residents To Speak Out Against Officer's Exoneration In Dog's Death

The owners of a dog that was shot and killed are encouraging residents to attend a council meeting tonight and speak out against a police officer who was exonerated in the shooting.

“This is about holding our police department accountable for actions we as a community deemed dangerous and irresponsible,” a post on the Justice for Otto Facebook page said. The page is run by Otto’s owners, the Vukobratovic family.

Patrolman Kyle Ferreira shot Otto twice April 29 after the dog jumped out of an open window and charged at the office, police said.

Ferreira was at 622 Lawlins Road when he should have been at 621 Lawlins Road investigating an attempted burglary that was reported earlier that day.

A Bergen County emergency dispatcher told Ferreira to go to 621 but the officer repeated back the address to the dispatcher as 622. 

Ferreira ran away but the dog bit him on the right foot and latched onto it. Ferreira believed that Otto could have caused “serious bodily harm” and fired his gun four times at the dog, hitting him twice, police said. The dog died later that night.

The Vukobratovic family and members of the community have disputed the department’s account of what exactly happened.

Fox and the department have been heavily criticized for how Ferreira reacted to the dog and since informed the public about the incident. Dozens of residents protested the shooting outside a council meeting May 5. They held up signs with “Justice for Otto” and “a gun is the last resort not the first.”

Fox exonerated Ferreira due to the results of a borough internal affairs investigation of the incident. Investigators concluded that Ferreira told the truth when reported what happened that day and “had a right to defend himself.”

Fox issued a five-page statement recapping the incident, subsequent investigation, and Ferreira’s exoneration last week.