DURHAM — Alex Klotz joined thousands of other University of New Hampshire students last Wednesday night, flooding Main Street to celebrate the Red Sox World Series victory.
But he didn’t expect to walk away from the celebration having been bitten twice by a State Police dog and having one of those bites captured on film by a Foster’s Daily Democrat photographer.
While approaching the tail end of a large crowd, Klotz said, a State Police dog came up behind him and bit him in the buttocks. He turned to speak with the officer, asking the handler to control his dog. That’s when Klotz was bitten a second time and the incident was captured on film.
Klotz told the officer he intended to file a complaint and asked for the officer’s name. The officer refused to identify himself, Klotz said. Not wanting to get hurt by the dog again, Klotz said he walked away with a bite to his buttocks and leg and no way to formally file a complaint against the officer.
In an interview with Foster’s, Klotz told his account of what happened that night, at one point rolling up his pant leg to reveal a red, linear scab as a result of a dog bite. State Police Sgt. Patrick Palmer, commander of the K-9 unit, was unavailable to speak with Foster’s about how the unit is trained to deal with large crowds and what an officer is supposed to do if he or she loses control of a dog. Palmer was attending a training session this morning.
State Police Captain Susan Forey said she couldn’t speak about the incident, since she wasn’t there, but said an officer doesn’t necessarily know when his dog has made contact with individuals when crowds are large and loud.
"I wouldn’t even want to comment as to whether people can hear each other in that crowd," she said.
Both Klotz and Foster’s photographer Aaron Rohde said the K-9 handler had refused to give his name.
"I don’t know that it’s an obligation, but it’s certainly something that’s encouraged," she said of whether an officer should give his name when asked.
The crowd that night numbered in the thousands, with people pouring out of the bars along Main Street and coming out of their dorms to celebrate. The crowd moved slowly but surely down Main Street, herded along by an unknown number of police officers from several departments, mounted patrol, and K-9 officers. Police will not publicly say how many officers were on duty that night.
Within an hour, the crowd was dispersed. And with only two arrests, the police have been credited with controlling the crowd and avoiding another riot reminiscent of last year’s baseball post-season, when the Red Sox lost the American League Championship series in heart-breaking fashion to the Yankees in Game 7.
And though Klotz also credited police with controlling the situation and keeping the crowd under control, he feels wronged.
"I told him (the State Police officer) I was going to file a complaint and asked his name," Klotz said. "At that point, I walked away into the crowd; I didn’t want to get hurt."
Rohde told a similar story about the State Police K-9 handler refusing to identify himself by name when asked. Rohde, who had already identified himself as a working photographer for Foster’s was tackled to the ground, along with his equipment, by several police officers and threatened with a charge of assaulting a police officer.
He was later charged with disorderly conduct for failing to cease and desist by backing away from a police dog.
Klotz said he thought the police handled the crowd of more than 3,000 well, moving students along and keeping the situation under control. But he also feels the State Police officer he encountered used an excessive amount of force by allowing his dog to bite Klotz twice. The handler should have been able to exert more control over his dog, Klotz said.
Police used a mix of manpower, mounted patrol, and K-9 units to herd the crowd of students down Main Street toward their dormitories. The night went by with little or no violence as students filed down the road, at times stopping for celebratory chants.
The dogs were brought in shortly after the crowd started moving and were part of the crowd control plan. The dogs could be seen moving toward the crowd, barking at each other and being brought directly up to students, in some cases, snapping at their legs. Officers in several cases had to revert to pulling back on the leashes to restrain the dogs.
Klotz was at first more concerned about the bites, he said, which were checked out by a doctor. He’s not worried about rabies, as he believes the State Police dogs most likely have had their shots. But he is upset about the way the officer treated him during and after the incident.
"That was the major problem I had; I really felt like I couldn’t do anything," he said. "The only power I had was to talk to him about it and he wouldn’t let me, so I felt like I didn’t have much control over the situation."
Klotz had been studying in his dorm while watching the game with a few friends, he said. He and a roommate left shortly after the game ended to join the crowd gathering outside. He had been walking behind a larger crowd, with very few people behind him when he saw police in riot gear moving closer to them.
"There was basically a wall of cops behind us, pushing us forward and there wasn’t really much room for us to go," he said.
So, he kept moving forward, walking toward the tail end of the larger crowd, when, with his back turned, a police dog bit him in the buttocks.
"I turned around to see what had happened and to say something to the officer," he said. " I walked up to him and said ‘sir, you need to control your dog.’"
That’s when the dog bit him a second time, this time captured in a series of photographs taken by Rohde. Klotz said he again tried to speak to the officer.
"I told him I was going to file a complaint and asked for his name," Klotz said. "He just kept saying move forward."
Another officer had been standing next to the K-9 handler, Klotz said, and thought Klotz was speaking to him.
"I’m not the one with the dog," was the officer’s response according to Klotz.
That’s when Klotz, with two bite wounds, turned around and walked away. He looked back and saw several police officers tackling another person to the ground. That person turned out to be Rohde.
"I kept thinking that could’ve been me, so I kept walking," Klotz said.
He managed to find another police officer who directed him to file a complaint with the Durham police department. He has yet to follow through with it.
"I don’t know exactly what that’s going to mean," he said. "I think because I couldn’t get the guy’s name it hurts my ability to do anything about it."
Klotz said he doesn’t hold a grudge about the incident and doesn’t want to make a blanket statement about the police presence that night. He said that by telling his story he hopes to improve the situation between the university and town in situations like this.
"I think, for the most part, they did the right thing," he said. "Probably, these dogs, they didn’t need to use these dogs and these dogs could’ve been controlled better."
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