Boise police K-9 Unit to be reviewed after dog dragged suspect who was shot
AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.
- Boise police cleared in 2024 shooting, but K9 deployment prompts review.
- Oversight office cites lack of planning, questions use of dog post-shooting.
- Cook was sentenced to at least 40 years in prison before he could be released on parole.
The Boise Police Department said it will hire an outside expert to evaluate its K-9 Unit after officers used a dog to drag a suspect they had just shot toward them.
Boise’s Office of Police Accountability, tasked to review police shootings, cleared officers of any wrongdoing when they shot an armed robbery suspect, Adam Cook, in September 2024. But in the OPA’s 14-page report, it raised questions about officers’ use of a police dog.
The report noted the severe injuries that Cook sustained to his face and neck from Boise Police Officer Colt Bonas’ K-9, Dozer. Cook underwent several surgeries to repair the damage that the dog’s bite caused and from the “twisting and tearing” of his skin while he was dragged away, the report said.
“The extent of his injuries highlights the inherent risks posed by using this tactic and the need to establish standards, including potential alternatives to its use,” OPA Director Nicole McKay and William Long, an investigator for the office, wrote in the report.
While using a less-lethal weapon and a K-9 might be an appropriate and necessary tactic in some circumstances, the report said, it shouldn’t be considered the “standard approach” for resolving similar incidents.
The report, along with hundreds of investigative records and hours of body-camera footage, were released this week after the Blaine County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, the outside agency assigned to review the investigation of the shooting, concluded the officers “acted reasonably.”
OPA’s report also included details from the Police Department’s internal review of the incident, which concluded that Bonas’ use of his K-9 didn’t violate any policy. But it noted that the coordination among all the officers in using the dog wasn’t well executed.
The Boise Police Department elected to have an outside expert evaluate the agency’s K-9 Unit and its Training Division — something the accountability office “fully supports,” according to its report.
Haley Williams, a spokesperson for the Police Department, told the Idaho Statesman that the department didn’t have any details on the outside review it could share yet.
“We’re still in the early stages of determining who the expert will be,” she wrote in an email.
Cook, now 41, survived his injuries.
He spent 11 days at Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center in Boise before being released to the Ada County Jail on 10 charges, most of them related to the robberies. He accepted a plea deal in April and pleaded guilty to one count of robbery, while the other charges against him were dropped.
The plea deal didn’t prevent him from facing a harsh sentence. Idaho law allows a judge to sentence someone to life in prison for a single count of robbery. In June, Cook was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years, meaning he won’t be eligible to be released from prison until he’s in his 80s.
Fourth Judicial District Judge James Cawthon said that regardless of Cook’s troubled upbringing, involving abuse, family dysfunction and a heroin addiction, his actions were just one episode in a long string of dangerous behavior, and that he’s failed to take advantage of previous chances.
“You’re a problem,” he told Cook.
Cook involved in a string of robberies in Boise, Nampa
Officers from the Boise Police Department responded to a report of an armed robbery around 9:30 p.m. Sept. 24, 2024, at the adult store Adam & Eve after Cook entered the business off Fairview Avenue in Boise and demanded money from the register before fleeing.
Based on the employees’ description of the suspect and the business proximity to Cook’s apartment, officers suspected Cook was the perpetrator. Police had been investigating him for three other robberies that occurred in the Treasure Valley that month.
Officers attempted to apprehend Cook at his apartment off of Cole Road, but he drove through the complex and fled from police, according to the reports. Police called off their pursuit of Cook over safety concerns, but found his vehicle abandoned in a neighborhood less than a mile away.
Cook was then seen by another officer jumping the fence of a family’s home in the 3100 block of North Redway Road, reports showed. Officers secured the home and eventually discovered Cook hiding behind a shed in the home’s backyard.
Officers took a position in the home’s garage, which had a door that led to the backyard. Boise Police Cpl. Luis Gutierrez told other officers that Cook had pointed a gun at him as he leaned out of the back door of the garage, attempting to apprehend Cook, footage showed.
Other officers took positions in the garage’s other window and from the second floor of the house as Gutierrez communicated with Cook. Gutierrez then told Cook that he was going to “f---ing kill” him if he didn’t turn himself in, according to his body-camera footage.
While the Police Department’s internal affairs investigation found Gutierrez’s statement “inappropriate,” it didn’t violate the department’s profane language policy, since it was made while trying to get Cook to follow directions during a “rapidly evolving situation,” according to OPA’s report.
OPA disagreed. In its report, OPA called the comment an “unacceptable and unauthorized threat” that violated the department’s policies prohibiting unlawful threatening conduct. Boise police’s internal review also noted that when Gutierrez’s comments didn’t work, he changed tactics and tried to downplay the situation.
While Gutierrez talked back and forth with Cook, Sgt. Tad Miller, who was tasked with running the operation, decided to send several other officers, along with Bonas and his K-9, into the garage to help, according to the reports. Shortly after, Miller heard gunshots and the announcement over the radio that shots had been fired.
Gutierrez and John Jayne, another officer, fired at Cook, and bullets hit him six or seven times.
While officers in the garage tried to find Cook’s firearm before approaching him, Miller from outside the front of the house gave commands to other officers to retrieve a shield and a 40mm less-lethal projectile launcher, the reports showed.
An officer operating a drone over the backyard couldn’t tell whether Cook had any weapons on him. Gutierrez asked Cook to crawl toward them, while Cook repeatedly told officers he couldn’t move after he’d been shot and didn’t have a gun on him, footage showed.
Miller at that point decided they’d use the launcher and Dozer to apprehend Cook. First, Boise Police Officer Luke Yanna would shoot Cook with the launcher to determine whether he was lying about being unable to move, and then Dozer would bite Cook and drag him back toward the garage.
Miller wrote in his report that he was “extremely fearful” that Cook was still armed or had a weapon near him.
“These steps were taken given the violent spree of felony crimes Cook had just committed with a firearm coupled with his verbal non-compliance,” Miller wrote.
Despite officers reporting that Cook initially had a gun in the waistband of his pants, and Cook taking a “shooting stance” at the officers, the firearm wasn’t found in the backyard, reports showed. It was instead found days later, along with some discarded clothing, outside an animal hospital that was near Adam & Eve, according to the reports.
Officer ‘escalated the situation,’ Boise’s police oversight says
While the tactic has been used before, the department’s oversight office noted the “inherent risks” in using a K-9 to drag someone in its report. Using the dog was a reflex rather than a decision, and officers didn’t discuss other commands Cook could have followed, like holding up his hands to show they were clear of any weapons, the report said.
“The deployment of the K-9 without having first assessed the suspect’s compliance demonstrates the need to fully evaluate the purpose and proper use of this tactic,” the report said.
Both the OPA and internal affairs reviews also addressed concerns about a lack of communication and planning throughout the incident. While higher-ranking officers established a command post and assigned officers’ roles, Gutierrez didn’t communicate before he opened the back door of the garage to confront Cook, the report said.
“There was no urgency to open the garage door to the backyard and confront the suspect,” OPA wrote. “The situation was contained, as officers had established a close perimeter around the backyard.”
Gutierrez could have waited for the department’s Special Operations Unit, which he’s a member of, since there was no need to force the encounter at that point, the report said. While Gutierrez said he opened the door to control any confrontation, doing so without planning and communication “escalated the situation,” according to OPA’s report.
Despite the issues identified by the oversight office, the report said they weren’t contributing factors in the shooting.
“The danger that led to the use of deadly force was created by the suspect’s actions,” the report read. “Fortunately, the suspect survived and has since recovered from his injuries.”
