Kansas sheriff’s K-9 bites boy’s face after running away from deputy’s Wichita home

A Kansas police dog that went missing from its home Sunday night was found by its handler the next morning, but not before it bit a teenager on the face and chest.

Bocephus, the sheriff’s K-9, escaped through a fence at around 7 p.m. Sunday at a deputy’s home in northwest Wichita, the Sedgwick County Sheriff’s Office said in news releases and social media posts. After the dog went missing, the sheriff’s office asked citizens to call 911 if they saw the dog and advised people not to try to catch it themselves.

“The dog is a trained K-9 and could possibly bite anyone that attempts to capture it,” sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Tim Myers said in a news release at around 9:45 p.m. “This is a public safety announcement.”

The dog was found at around 10:30 p.m. Sunday in the area of 2100 N. Parkridge, near 21st North and 119th West, Myers said in a second news release at around noon Monday. The person who found the K-9 put it on a leash and walked around the neighborhood that night trying to find its owner before taking the dog home.

At the house, the dog was put in the bedroom of a 14-year-old boy. That boy then took the dog out for a walk at around 5:30 a.m., the sheriff’s office said. The teen tried to take the leash off the dog, and the dog bit the teen’s face and chest.

The boy ran home and was taken to Wesley Healthcare’s minor emergency clinic by his mother for treatment of what the sheriff’s office called minor injuries. The boy had been released from the hospital by Monday afternoon. The dog remained outside until its handler found it at around 6 a.m.

The sheriff’s office said it is still investigating how the dog got out of its enclosure.

This story was originally published November 18, 2019 at 3:46 PM.