SALT LAKE CITY — The Salt Lake County District Attorney's office has released the results of their investigation into the death of a police K-9 service dog in the summer of 2023.
Loki, an 8-year-old Belgian Malinois, was part of the Utah Department of Corrections' K-9 unit since 2017. On July 13, 2023, Loki died after being left inside the officer's vehicle.
The DA's office on Friday said after investigating Loki's death, they declined to file charges against the officer who was in charge of Loki.
According to the investigation, the officer used Loki to search a warehouse at the Utah State Correctional Facility around 2:40 p.m. Then at 3:12, the officer parked his vehicle at the "kennel" building and went inside, leaving Loki in the vehicle. The officer then went to help search for a missing tool in another area of the facility and returned at 6:30 p.m.
At 6:44 p.m., the officer reportedly went to the kennel to retrieve Loki, but then realized he was not there and was still in the police vehicle, which was not running.
The DA's office said it's believed Loki died of heat stroke.
The district attorney declined to file charges, saying the officer's actions weren't deemed "reckless" or "criminal negligence."
"For us to conclude that he acted recklessly, he would need to have been consciously aware of the risk of keeping Loki in the vehicle and disregarded it," the DA's office wrote in the report. "[The officer] going to get Loki from his kennel instead of the vehicle where he was left indicates that the officer believed Loki to be in his kennel; he, therefore, could not have consciously disregarded the risk because he had forgotten he was in the vehicle."
The DA's office added that the police vehicle was equipped with a specialized K-9 "heat alert" system, which would automatically roll down the windows, start the ignition and turn on a fan when the interior temperature reached 85 degrees. However, the system was not turned on and thus did not activate when the temperature rose.
"Based on the facts before us, we believe that the death of Loki was a profoundly unfortunate accident but that it does not rise to the level of criminal negligence," the DA's office wrote.
