A Portland police dog named Kylo was shot and killed Thursday on his last shift before retirement — killed tracking a homicide suspect in a city that has spent years hollowing out the very forces meant to keep the public safe.
Kylo, a German shepherd who served six years with the Portland Police Bureau, was helping track a man wanted in a Gresham homicide from earlier that morning. Jeff Thompson, 60, was found shot to death after a 7 a.m. welfare check on Southeast Market Street, according to the Gresham Police Department. Detectives identified the suspect using new public safety cameras in Vance Park and Motorola license plate readers operating under Oregon Senate Bill 1516. The U.S. Marshals Service Pacific Northwest Violent Offender Task Force joined the arrest attempt. The man fled. Officers closed in. Shots broke out around 1:45 p.m.
Two Portland officers and two from outside agencies confronted the suspect. The man died at the scene, and officers recovered a firearm, according to the Portland Police Bureau. Kylo was hit in the exchange and died later at a veterinary hospital. The bureau has not said whether the suspect or officers fired the round that killed the dog. An internal use-of-force review will examine the response and tactics — because in Portland, the first instinct after an officer or a K9 bleeds is always to scrutinize the police, not the system that put them in harm's way.
Police union president Sgt. Aaron Schmautz didn't mince words: "These dogs, they're born, they're bred, they're raised to just help and serve and support community safety, and Kylo was there until the very last moment, and he died saving the lives of several police officers."
Portland Police Chief Bob Day called the loss personal. "It's a solemn reminder of the real threats that our members face in our city every day," he said, according to KOIN.
Every day. In a city where politicians have tripped over themselves to cut police funding, restrict enforcement, and treat law enforcement as the problem. Homicide suspects walk free long enough to kill again. Task forces and K9 units — the sharp end of public safety — are sent into danger understaffed and under-supported. Then the reviews come, and the brass wrings their hands.
Kylo was the first Portland police dog killed in the line of duty since 2014. Officers saluted as police and firefighters escorted his flag-draped body into the Oregon Humane Society on Thursday evening.
He served six years. He was hours from retirement. He died doing a job the city barely still allows its police to do.
The question isn't whether the use-of-force tactics were correct. The question is why a homicide suspect was loose in the first place, and why the people and animals sent to stop him are treated as expendable by the political class that runs Portland.
