Santa Fe police K9, the subject of a lawsuit, now under separate investigation
**Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article stated the department had three K9s – however, officials said they have four. This article also named an officer as a former officer; however, he has returned to service. These discrepancies have been corrected.**
SANTA FE, N.M. (KRQE) – New Mexico State Police said the Santa Fe Police Department officer shot earlier this month was also bit by his own department’s K9. News 13 also learned this is the same K9 that is the subject of a lawsuit against the department for an incident in 2022.
The K9, named Ayke, joined the department in 2020 and is now under an internal affairs investigation.
“We want to see what occurred. Why the dog engaged in the matter that it did, and those are things that we look through through our internal affairs investigation into this,” said Deputy Chief Ben Valdez.
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NMSP said during a police shooting involving Santa Fe Police earlier this month, the officer who was shot was also bitten in the arm by Ayke. Per the department’s policy, Ayke was put in quarantine for 10 days and is now back on duty, according to Deputy Chief Valdez. Ayke is also the subject of pending litigation against the department.
In January 2023, Officer Damian Vigil filed a lawsuit against the Santa Fe Police Department and its K9 services for an attack the year before. According to the lawsuit, Officer Vigil participated in a demonstration in which he was in a protective suit and Ayke was released on him. Vigil said despite being told the dog is trained to avoid the neck and head, Ayke didn’t listen to commands to release him and then attacked his face. The incident was also caught on camera by fellow officers.
Ayke was eventually put back on duty. News 13 asked Deputy Chief Valdez why. “Because we’re discussing that incident that is under litigation, I can’t provide any comment on that,” he said.
News 13 also asked him if the most recent incident of Ayke biting an officer could’ve been prevented.
“We’re waiting to get additional facts from the investigation, and something that we see that are inherently different between the two incidents: one was a training incident, the other was a dynamic, critical situation,” said Deputy Chief Valdez. “They’re two separate things, so there’s really no comparison to the two.”
He said a use of force committee will also review the latest incident. Meanwhile, Ayke will continue to train and serve.
“As of right now, they’ve seen that he can return to duty but again, training continues from here forward,” he said. “We have to wait to get all the facts from this latest incident to see, hey what were things that went good, what are things we can improve on.”
The officer who was bit this month is out of the hospital and recovering while NMSP continues to investigate the shooting. Deputy Chief Valdez said the department has four K9s.
