K9 Roscoe – Anderson County, South Carolina

Died – 8/12/20

Suspect and K9 die after ambush on deputies

A shooting in a small South Carolina city involving sheriff’s deputies has left a man dead and a woman injured. The deputies were searching for two people who ran out of a car after an attempted traffic stop Tuesday night when they were caught in an “ambush situation” and fired upon from a hill next to a Lowe’s parking lot, news outlets reported, citing Anderson County Sheriff Chad McBride. The deputies returned fire and struck two people, McBride said. A police dog named Roscoe was also injured in the shooting and died Wednesday morning, WYFF-TV reported. Roscoe was a 3-year-old German shepherd who joined the department in 2017. The sheriff’s office has handed the case to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, as is customary with any shootings involving law enforcement officers. The state agency said it would not release any further information while the investigation is ongoing. “This could have been a whole lot worse. It’s bad enough with our K9 being shot, but our two human officers were not struck,” McBride said. It was unclear from the reports how many deputies were involved in the shooting. At least two were put on paid administrative leave, according to the Anderson Independent-Mail. The shooting is the 28th involving law enforcement officers in South Carolina this year, and the third involving the Anderson County Sheriff’s Office, the Law Enforcement Division said. A later investigation showed that K9 Roscoe was killed by friendly fire.

Submitted By Jim Cortina

James A. Cortina has been involved with police dogs since 1972 and currently on the Board of Directors for the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. Jim has been appointed as Treasurer since its inception in 1991. Jim is one of the charter members of the C.P.W.D.A. organization. Since 1975 he has been a certified professional dog trainer and received his Master Trainer Certification in 1985. During his career he has provided armed K-9 strike crowd control for security agencies in Connecticut and out of state security companies. In conjunction with other members of the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. Board of Directors, he helped to draft Connecticut Statute 53-247(e) "Intentional Injury or Killing of Police K-9" which was passed by the Senate in 1993 and also assisted in implementing the prestigious Daniel Wasson Memorial K-9 Award in 1992. In 1993 he helped coordinate the North American Police Work Dog Association Nationals in New London, Connecticut. He was appointed Training Director for the New London County Work Dog Association from 1985-1987. He performed decoy work for Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc. in police K-9 demonstrations, trained several local police department canines, and coordinated training workshops for out-of-state police departments. He participated in the United States Police K-9 Association Trials in Croton on Hudson, New York in 1985 as a decoy. He is an avid photographer and received photography awards in 1989, 1990, and 1991 and currently takes photographs for the Connecticut Police Work Dog Association Inc.