The humans behind Nero's Law, a new state law that protects police dogs - Cape Cod Times

When a SWAT team carried police dog Nero out of a Marston Mills home on April 12,2018, he was choking, bleeding heavily and had a bullet lodged inside him. EMTs, paramedics, and ambulances were all at hand, but due to state law were legally prohibited from providing medical help to the dog.

“Police K-9s are officers right up until when they’re injured, then all of a sudden they were dogs,” said Dr. Kevin Smith, Nero’s veterinarian and author of Nero’s Law, a bill recently signed into law by Gov. Charlie Baker, which allows EMS professionals to treat and transport police dogs injured in the line of duty.

Nero survived, but the incident shed light on a deeper issue, Smith said.

Nero, a Belgian Malinois, had been the K-9 partner of Yarmouth police Sgt. Sean Gannon who was shot and killed that day while trying to serve a warrant in a Marston Mills home.

At that time, Smith had been working on a program to train SWAT medics to treat injured police dogs. He quickly realized that the program he had been working on would not be allowed under existing state law.

Smith began the process of writing Nero’s Law. A veterinarian with no legal experience, Smith spent countless hours reading Massachusetts General Laws. Lee Palmer, a veterinarian and paramedic from Alabama, helped him with the work.

“My head was swimming in MGLs,” said Smith, referring to Massachusetts General Laws.

Luckily, Smith’s family is used to his irregular sleep patterns and didn't notice his obsession with writing a piece of legislation. Part of the reason the process took so much work is that Smith had to familiarize himself with all laws on human and veterinary medicine.

After about nine months, Nero’s Law was complete. Smith took it to then-state Rep. William Crocker, a Republican from Centerville, who filed the bill, but was unable to get it passed during his time in office. The baton was passed to state Rep. Steven Xiarhos, R-West Barnstable, former member of the Yarmouth Police Department, who was at the Marston Mills home the day Gannon was killed.

On Aug. 20, 2021, a jury convicted 33-year-old Thomas Latanowich of second-degree murder in the 2018 killing of Gannon.

Barnstable Superior Court Judge Jeffrey Locke sentenced Latanowich to life in prison at the Massachusetts Correctional Institution - Cedar Junction, with the opportunity of parole 25 years after he first completes a 10- to15-year sentence for being a career criminal, a charge to which he pleaded guilty.

Latanowich, of Somerville, was also convicted on all six other charges, including assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, possession of ammunition without an FID card and mistreatment of a police dog.

More:'Completely shattered': Gannon family speaks out on second-degree murder conviction

Gannon's death spurred Xiarhos to run for office in the first place.

Xiarhos remembers the day that Nero was let out of the hospital, after six days of fighting for his life. He said Nero was “skinny as a rail,” shaved, and covered in stitches. Xiarhos said it was apparent that the dog was looking for his partner, Sgt. Gannon. When Nero jumped into the back of Gannon’s police cruiser, which had been brought to the hospital, he began licking the back of the headrest where Gannon would’ve sat.

“That was the moment that told me, we need to do better. There shouldn’t be people with 125 crimes on their record out on the streets, and we should be able to help an injured police animal in their time of need,” said Xiarhos.

Nero’s Law received an outpouring of support from all over the state, both from government officials and the public, said Xiarhos. A petition to support the bill received 3,000 signatures, and was co-signed by over 100 elected officials, he said.

Now that Nero’s Law has been signed into law, it lets everyone in Massachusetts know that police dogs will be protected, Xiarhos said. He hopes other states adopt similar laws.

Smith said, “At some point, this law should save a dog. And then it should save a second dog, and a third dog."

Contact Asad Jung at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter: @adadjungcct.

source: https://www.capecodtimes.com/story/news/2022/02/25/nero-yarmouth-police-dog-shot-line-duty-sgt-sean-gannon-killed-new-law/6891550001/

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