Dog shot, man arrested after not complying with police on traffic stop

A Columbia County Sheriff’s Deputy conducted a traffic stop on Friday shortly after 2 PM on Highway 78 south of Portage for an equipment violation.

Upon making contact with the male driver, the man only rolled the window down a few inches. The vehicle windows were illegally tinted, and the deputy had difficulty seeing inside the vehicle so he asked the man to roll the window all the way down which the driver refused.

A supervisor arrived at the traffic stop and made contact with the man and he continued to refuse to exit the vehicle. As a result of the non-compliance, deputies broke the window of the vehicle, and multiple taser deployments were utilized during the attempt to take the man into custody.

While deputies were attempting to remove the man from the vehicle, one of the man’s dogs exited the vehicle through the open door and bit a deputy multiple times. The deputy fired his gun at the dog in an attempt to stop the dog’s attack.

The 32-year-old Hartford man was then taken into custody and charged with Resisting/Obstructing causing substantial bodily harm.

The deputy was taken to the hospital and treated for his injuries which required vaccination for rabies due to the dog bites.

The injured dog was taken by the Columbia County Humane Society and transported to an emergency veterinary clinic which determined the dog would need to be euthanized due to the injuries.

The incident is being investigated by the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office.