Editor's Note: An earlier version of this story incorrectly listed the manner of the K9's death as coming by gun shot. The dog was not killed by gun shots, rather by two fatal blows to its head. We apologize for the error.
A neighbor near where a Laurel man was attacked by a K9 on Thursday morning said the dog belonged to an officer who lives nearby.
It was unclear Friday if the man who was attacked remained hospitalized, and authorities investigating the incident were not available to provide more information.
One of the witnesses to the attack that lasted for more than 15 minutes was Laurel Fire Chief JW Hopper.
"I wasn't sure what was going to happen, because the dog was not stopping," Hopper said Friday.
The attack happened about 8 a.m. Thursday on Wyoming Avenue. Officials have identified the victim as 51-year-old Mark Raty.
Hopper said Raty was likely about to put up his Christmas lights when he was attacked by the animal.
At the time of the attack, authorities believed it was a neighborhood dog, but it was later identified by Laurel police to be a Belgian Malinois K-9 belonging to the Montana Highway Patrol.
Hopper described the scene as chaotic.
"The dog was not giving up. We had an ambulance lieutenant that was assisting also," said Hopper.
Hopper said non-lethal efforts like deploying a Taser or using an animal control catch pole did not work.
A Laurel police officer eventually delivered two fatal blows to the dog's head, killing it.
Hopper said the officer had no other choice but to kill the dog. Hopper said Laurel officer Baumgartner did everything in his power to stop the dog in those moments.
"In my mind, I was thinking, 'Is he going to switch and come at us?'" he said. "(Baumgartner) has my one hundred percent support. I stand behind him 100 percent. It was a scary situation," he said.
According to a nearby neighbor, the dog and handler live on the same block.
As MTN previously reported last May, MHP K-9s are trained in Boulder before being put to work.
"The K-9 has proven time and time again to be one of the most useful tools we have," Sgt. Shad Andersen, who supervises the training program, said last Spring.
The K-9s are trained to obey only their handler.
Hopper said it was clear at the scene in Laurel that the trained police dog was not obeying any orders.
"For whatever reason, he kept going for the individual he had originally bit. He never did really come at any of the rest of us," Hopper said.
Raty's wife said Friday they're "taking it one day at a time." She declined further comment.
Hopper said the incident was highly unusual.
"It was new for all of us. None of us had ever been in that situation. I've never been around a dog that was that aggressive," Hopper said.
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