Wyckoff Police Chief: Officer Believed Dog Could've Caused 'Serious Bodily Harm'

Patrolman Kyle Ferreira believed that a German shepherd that bit him last month could have caused “serious bodily harm” and that’s why he shot the dog, Chief Benjamin Fox said in a prepared five-page statement released Friday night.

Fox has exonerated Ferreira in the matter after township police conducted an internal investigation into the incident.

Ferreira shot the dog four times after it “charged at the officer in an aggressive manner,” Fox 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.

“The incorrect address he stated was not corrected by the dispatcher or anyone else on the radio frequency,” Fox said.

Fox also said that a Wyckoff police clerk stated to the dispatcher that the homeowner of 621 Lawlins Road was cleaning up the property and “doesn’t know how long it’s been” since the alleged burglary may have occurred. A supervising police officer asked how long in the past? The dispatcher responded “According to the desk, quite a while in the past, like days.”

“Although this information is completely erroneous, I acknowledge that it is the information that Ferreira was working under,” Fox said.

Fox said Ferreira unholstered his gun “for his personal protection” while he was alone on the property and because he ”did not know the full details of the situation.”

Once the dog jumped out of an opened window and charged, Ferreira began running towards the gate that he entered the back of the property through. He was at the edge of the patio areas when Otto bit his right boot and wouldn’t let go.

Fox said that “the aggressiveness and large size of the dog, and having the dog bite and hang onto his foot; causes him to fel that if the dog tok him down it could have mauled him causing serious bodily injury.”

According to Fox, the Attorney General’s guidelines state that an officer may use “deadly force when such action is immediately necessary to protect the officer form imminent danger or death or serious bodily harm.

“The officer believed that the dog could in fact cause serious bodily harm.”

Otto was later put down at an animal hospital because he could not recover from the injuries he sustained.

Fox and the department have been heavily criticized for how Ferreira reacted to the dog and since the incident was made public late last month. The Vukobratovic family and members of the community have disputed the department’s account of what exactly happened.

Fox has 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 said of the internal affairs police officers who investigated the incident: “I trust in them and concur with their findings in the results of this investigation” and that they found “nothing to suggest” Ferreira did not tell the truth.

The day after the shooting, police spoke to a witness watched the incident occur from a first-floor window, but said she “was only 90 percent certain that she observed the entire incident” and was “pre-occupied with a grandchild and may have turned away at some point.” Fox also said the witness never saw Ferriera unholster his gun or the dog bite him.

A copy of Fox’s entire statement has been attached to this article.