- April 15, 2024
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OCOEE – Ocoee residents following updates involving the fatal shooting of an Ocoee family’s dog have waited since July for the department to complete its internal investigation.
The incident, which occurred outside the family’s home July 17, resulted in the death of one of the family’s two dogs — an 11-year-old Catahoula hound dog named Duke.
The department’s incident report does not directly acknowledge that Ocoee officer Stevens Bertrand shot Duke after entering the fenced yard, but it does mention that animal control services were contacted to pick up the remains of a deceased dog after receiving permission from the dog’s owner, Charlie Brooks.
It has been nearly three months since the incident, and the internal review report investigating the discharge of Bertrand's gun has not yet been made available to the public. When asked about the reason for the delay, Ocoee Deputy Chief Steve McCosker noted the department has only one investigator who also shares other duties and preparation for Hurricane Irma took precedence. However, he expects the report to be completed within a week.
“There is only one investigator, and he’s been working on that, but the delay was caused by several things,” McCosker said. “The homeowner went away for two weeks, and he was really the only other witness other than the officer, and before getting to the officer, we had to interview the homeowner due to the Policeman’s Bill of Rights … and right now, to the best of my knowledge, (the report) is being typed up.”
If the report determines Bertrand used reasonable force and is justified in shooting Duke given the circumstances, Bertrand will not be disciplined. If the report concludes Bertrand’s actions were not justified, then any type of disciplinary action, which could include termination, would be subject to the discretion of Police Chief Charles Brown, McCosker added.
Bertrand has since resumed his position as a School Resource Officer at Ocoee High School — a position he’s held for about 18 months, McCosker said. Bertrand was not assigned to work as an SRO because of the pending investigation, he said.
“It’s not a position — especially because it deals with kids — it’s not a position where we would transfer someone because they’re under investigation,” McCosker said. “If we had to pull someone for administrative purposes, we would either put them on administrative leave with pay, or we would go ahead and bring them inside to do clerical work.”
Although not required by state law, every law-enforcement officer at the department receives human-canine interaction video training hosted by the U.S Department of Justice, McCosker said. To date, Bertrand has received that training twice in his six years of employment with the Ocoee Police Department, once in 2012 and again in April 2017. Since 2012, the department has had three officer-involved fatal dog shootings including July's incident with Duke, McCosker said.
"From 2012, I'm only aware of three instances," he said. "One was in 2012 with Jerry (Morgan Lewis) who got bit, the other one was Officer Lee Stevens and that was in the Rose Hill subdivision, and that dog had bitten two other people and was actually up on Lee Stevens when he got shot, and then this one. So two that I'm aware of where people were actually physically bitten, and this one where the officer hadn't gotten bit yet."
To address the problem of officer-involved dog shootings, McCosker shared, the department has decided to invest in a program called “Be Aware of Residential K9s,” or BARK. This would require compliance from dog owners who will be asked to register their homes as having a canine and be given reflective decals featuring a paw print to display in front of their residence.
“So they’ll be able to display the sticker and that will allow any public safety officer to know there’s a dog on the premises and it will also alert criminals there’s a dog on the premises,” McCosker explained. “So we’re hoping this early notification system will help keep everyone safe.”
