Police dog helped prevent use of lethal force in capture of criminal, state official says

Pennsylvania State Police credited K-9 officers with preventing the use of lethal force in the arrest Wednesday of Danelo Cavalcante, a convicted murderer who had been on the run since escaping prison Aug. 31. 

At a press conference announcing Cavalcante’s capture Wednesday, Pennsylvania State Police Lt. Col. George Bivens said that even though Cavalcante was armed at the time of his arrest, the police dog was able to prevent any significant injuries to either Cavalcante or any of the law enforcement officials present. No shots were fired during the arrest.

“K-9s play a very important role, not only for tracking but also for, just like in a circumstance like this, safely capturing someone. Far better that we’re able to release a patrol dog like this and have them subdue the individual than have to use lethal force,” Bivens said. “Our preference is always to use other means. K-9s play a very important role.”

Cavalcante’s arrest came after a nearly two-week-long manhunt involving hundreds of law enforcement officials from the federal, state and local levels. Bivens said Wednesday that the arrest involved personnel from the Pennsylvania State Police and from U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which brought the dog that aided in the arrest.  

The CBP Border Patrol team released the dog while additional law enforcement officials from the Pennsylvania State Police surrounded Cavalcante, Bivens said at the press conference.

“The dog subdued him, and team members from both of those teams immediately moved in. He continued to resist but was forcibly taken into custody. No one was injured as a result of that,” Bivens said.

“He did sustain a minor bite wound. We had medical personnel at the scene, and they took a look at that,” he added.

Police dogs are trained to detain an individual, Bivens said, not to cause unnecessary harm. The goal is for the officers then to give the dog a command, so the dog can back away and officers can move in to arrest the individual. 

“They don’t just keep biting and releasing or trying to cause additional injury. They simply grab onto and try and hold that person in place until officers can get there,” Bivens said. “That’s why they’re never released, you know, at some great distance or unsupervised. There are officers close by who can then move in. The handler can immediately pull the dog back off if they give them a command, pull the dog back off and then officers [move in].”