HELENA — The Montana Highway Patrol today identified the canine involved in the Thursday incident in Laurel as canine Mike who served the Patrol for nearly three years as a full-service police utility dog. K9 Mike’s handler was Sergeant John Metcalfe. At the time of the incident, K9 Mike was in the care of another canine handler, Trooper Luke McKinney.

On Thursday, November 28, K9 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 K9 to prevent further injury to the man. The man was treated at the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries and has since been released.

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.

“We are thankful to the Laurel Police Department for their assistance in conducting the investigation and to the officer who was forced to make the difficult decision to end K9 Mike’s life Thursday,” MHP Lieutenant Colonel Kyle Hayter said. “Rest assured, our K9’s are highly trained to obey their handler’s commands and do not present a danger to the general public. This was an unfortunate, but isolated, incident. We are currently reviewing our training and procedures to do everything we can to keep it from happening again in the future.”

Mike was a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois born in Holland. K9 Mike joined MHP in 2022 and completed 300 hours of initial training in western Pennsylvania. K9 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, K9 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.