Smokey

Incident

K9 Smokey was shot and killed after inadvertently biting a Florida Highway Patrol trooper during a foot pursuit in Lantana.

The trooper had conducted a traffic stop on I-95. The trooper didn't know that the vehicle had been stolen and began writing a ticket to the driver. The man jumped back into the car and fled, leading the trooper in a pursuit. The car came to a stop after turning onto a dead-end street off or Route 1 in south Lantana and the man fled on foot into a neighborhood.

K9 Smokey was deployed to apprehend the subject but mistook the trooper for the fleeing man and bit him. The trooper shoot Smokey in an attempt to defend himself.

K9 Smokey had served with the Boynton Beach Police Department for 2-1/2 years.