Officers recognised at the forthcoming Cleveland Police Federation Bravery Awards 21st March 24.

15 March 2024

PC Morgan Rose, PC Jenna O’Hora, PC Jake Brown, PC Nathan Huitson, PC Ben Sutcliffe, PC Ian Largan, PC Kev Weldon, PC Russ Sinclair, PC Spencer Kindon, PC Phil Bieda

Horrific Dog Attack

The above officers are being recognised at the forthcoming Cleveland Police Federation Bravery Awards 21^st March 24. The officers were faced with an unthinkable situation with an out of control dog attacking members of the community.

On 23rd June 2023 PC’s Rose, O’Hora and Brown were dealing with an incident inside a premises. Also inside the premises was an XL Bully type dog. What happened next put the officers in a fight to save the life of an individual inside the address, the female and children inside the address, and themselves.

The dog went into attack mode and began to viciously attack a male within the premises, relentlessly biting and shaking him. The dog managed to drag the male to the floor, where it continued the attack. By this time the male was covered in blood, as was the dog, but the attack relentlessly continued. The officers tried everything they could to try and stop the attack. Numerous baton strikes were used, these just bounced off the dog and it did not phase it at all. Items around the house to try and lever the dog off the male were used, simply put, nothing they did worked. The dog would not relent and by this point the dog had moved to biting and locking on to the male’s neck.

Other officers, including a dog unit and a firearms team were already on route to help. PC Huitson arrived before them, and this officer had a taser. PC Huitson entered the premises and deployed his taser on the dog. Initially this also appeared not to work, but eventually it did, and the dog relinquished its grip on the male for a split second. This was enough for the officers to grab the male and withdraw from the premises. Finally, everyone inside the address, including young children were all out of the address and safe.

The dog bolted out of the premises and was now loose on the streets, posing further risk to the public. The firearms team lead by APS Largan had now arrived as well as the dog unit, PC Sutcliffe. The dog had been confined to an alleyway.