Fugitive surrenders to marshals while investigation continues

Brandon Bernard Allison, the 27-year-old fugitive accused of killing Sheriff’s K-9 Baron Tuesday morning, was booked into the St Johns County Detention Facility at the Neil J Perry Criminal Justice Complex in St Augustine yesterday evening at 5:37 p.m., according to jail reports received by Historic City News local reporters.

Allison, whose last known address was reported to be 1077 Puryear Street in St Augustine, has been charged in accordance with the fugitive warrant; alleging sale of cocaine, a Schedule II controlled substance and a second-degree felony. He is being held in lieu of $100,000 bail on that charge.

Additional charges are pending the outcome of the investigation into the disturbance that sent deputies to a disturbance call at 3:20 a.m. Tuesday at a residence on Twin Aspen Circle. Part of that investigation focuses on the pursuit that followed after Allison fled the scene before he could be interviewed.

Deputy Sheriff Farrah Ashe, a K-9 handler, and her partner, K-9 Baron, tracked Allison into a wooded area until the team reached a fence. Ashe lifted Baron over the fence, and, according to the incident report, as she began to scale the fence herself, Baron took off in pursuit of Allison’s scent.

While in pursuit, Ashe says that she heard Baron engage; but, by the time she could reach the location, she found her K-9 mortally injured, and lying in a body of water. Emergency lifesaving efforts were employed and the K-9 was transported to an emergency veterinary clinic for treatment of his injuries. He died at the clinic and officials are currently attempting to determine if he was drowned or fatally injured in some other fashion.

Emotions are running high in the community after the first report of this incident. There are those who have commented in social media that dispatching the police dog was unnecessary and an excessive use of force because Allison was unarmed and not a threat to anyone at the time. Animal rights activists are saying that the use of canines as attack dogs or to track or engage police suspects is cruel and that the animals trained in this way can be unpredictable in their engagement with humans.

The law enforcement community sees the use of trained K-9 officers, and their assigned handlers, as a limited use of non-lethal force. Certain dogs are trained for search and rescue, others to detect explosives or narcotics, while others, like K-9 Baron, to track and engage fleeing persons.

Media Relations Officer Kevin Kelshaw reminded Historic City News editor Michael Gold that although the current canine training program is far advanced today, the use of police dogs in St Johns County predates the 1970’s and the St Augustine City Police used canines for additional protection details as long as 50-years-ago. Neither could recall any incident where death or serious bodily injury befell a suspect engaged by a canine officer; Kelshaw started with the Sheriff’s Office in the 1980’s and Gold was a deputy sheriff in the 1970’s.

There will be a public memorial service for K-9 Baron on Tuesday, October 14th at the St Augustine Amphitheatre, located at 1340 A1A South on Anastasia Island in St Augustine beginning at 11:00 a.m. Historic City News readers are invited by Sheriff David Shoar and the men and women of the St Johns County Sheriff’s Office.