K9 Cop Who Killed His Dog Is Also Messy AF
K9 Cop Who Killed His Dog Is Also Messy AF
SPD canine handler Anthony Ducre was in the dog house with his supervisors in the months before he sent his furry partner to his death
Anthony Ducre, the K9 cop who sent his dog on a pointless suicide mission last year, has a reputation as a prima donna and a snitch, according to a complaint filed by his sergeant to the OPA in 2022. Ducre’s sergeant John Marc O’Neil said there was friction between the two officers after O’Neil joined the unit in the summer of 2021. The main bone of contention was Ducre’s role in training new K9 officers. O’Neil assigned Ducre to assist rookie K9 officers Dillon Butenhoff and Kame Spencer, who were getting their handler certification in Pierce County in the fall of 2021. Ducre’s primary task was to be an observer and provide an experienced handler’s perspective.
Ducre was an odd selection as the person to be molding the next generation of K9 officers. In fact, while Ducre was working with Spencer and Butenhoff, the city was finalizing a $225,000 settlement with the woman his dog Jedi mauled in 2020 during a training exercise.
A series of OPA investigations underscore how Jedi was poorly controlled and resistant to commands to release his bite. In one incident, the dog broke free of Ducre’s cruiser and maimed a handcuffed man. This problem persisted until Jedi’s death. The final OPA report on the 2022 shooting notes that Jedi didn’t respond to Ducre’s commands or a jolt from the shock collar.
For someone who is objectively bad at handling dogs, Ducre apparently felt supremely qualified and entitled to teach dog handling. In his complaint, O’Neil said Ducre was stepping over his boundaries and “acting as [their] supervisor” when he was only supposed to check in on their training.
O’Neil was particularly enraged that Ducre took Butenhoff and Spencer on a burglary call without authorization. According to the complaint, O’Neil heard “rumblings” that Ducre was interfering with the officers’ training in Pierce County, so he went down to observe. He wrote:
In addition, Officer Ducre was reporting that Pierce County did not know what they were doing, and he did not believe the handlers would pass thecertification test. I went to Pierce County and talked to the trainers. I had been there several times before to check on the handlers. All other times, the environment was jovial. I didn’t detect any issues (as far as training). This time the atmosphere seemed to be tense. I asked the trainers how things were going and if there were any issues. They hesitated, said training the dogs were tough but they believed they would be able to certify the handlers. They did not provide any feedback on Officer Ducre’s presence. I was noticing/experiencing Officer Ducre being argumentative to instruction.
Ducre told O’Neil in November 2021 that training wasn’t going well and might need to be extended, but Spencer and Butenhoff were certified in December. Ducre signaled he was ready to move them onto the street, though O’Neil still believed their training was “subpar.” O’Neil decided to remove Ducre from training and defer to Acting Sgt. Jake Briskey to draft a training plan.
This upset Ducre, and he launched into a rant about how O’Neil and K9 Lt. Rodney Strozier didn’t “listen” to him enough. He capped off this tirade petulantly by saying, “Remember, I don’t need K9; K9 needs me,” to which Sgt. O’Neil reminded Ducre, “I don’t follow orders from you; you follow orders from me.” This confrontation occurred shortly before Jedi was killed.
After Jedi’s death, Ducre seemed to turn around and try to make amends with O’Neil. That changed when O’Neil told him they were bringing in a permanent trainer and that command had made it clear that Ducre would no longer be involved. Ducre retaliated against O’Neil by filing an EEO complaint alleging that his sergeant was doing anti-white racism against him.
Ducre claimed that O’Neil removed only pictures of the white K9 handlers in the K9 sergeant’s office when the sergeant sharing the office left. (In reality, he removed everything and put up his own pics). Ducre also had beef with Lt. Strozier, who, like O’Neil, is also Black.
In all likelihood, Ducre was the anonymous complainant who dimed on Lt. Strozier for sleeping in his office. That complaint was submitted on Nov. 4, 2021, two days after Strozier called O’Neil to ask why Ducre took Spencer and Butenhoff on that burglary call without authorization.
Nothing became of O’Neil’s complaint against Ducre. It was likely handled informally. The complaint itself was classified as a “Contact Log” and filed away until everyone’s favorite local police watchdog obtained it through a public disclosure request.