The Montana Highway Patrol today identified the K-9 involved in last week’s incident in Laurel as K-9 Mike who served the Patrol for nearly three years as a full-service police utility dog before he was killed to stop an attack on a man who was not being arrested. 

On Thursday, November 28, K-9 Mike freed himself from his kennel and subsequently bit a man doing yardwork nearby. An officer with the Laurel Police Department was dispatched to the scene and forced to utilize lethal harm on the K-9 to prevent further injury to the man. The man was treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and has since been released, KULR reports.

The Laurel Police Department is conducting a third-party investigation into the incident for the Highway Patrol. MHP is also conducting an internal review to ensure a similar situation does not happen again.

Mike was a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois born in Holland. K-9 Mike joined MHP in 2022 and completed 300 hours of initial training in western Pennsylvania. K-9 Mike was a full-service police utility dog, trained in the areas of narcotics detection, article search, area search, tracking, and apprehension. During his career, K-9 Mike was deployed 168 times, helped arrest 79 suspects, and assisted in the seizure of 450 fentanyl pills, one pound of fentanyl powder, and nine pounds of methamphetamine.

K-9 Mike’s handler was Sergeant John Metcalfe. At the time of the incident, K-9 Mike was in the care of another canine handler, Trooper Luke McKinney.