Police K9 Bites Fire Chief During Joint Training Exercise, Union Says Chief Resisted

Faketown Fire Chief Russell Okafor was treated for a minor hand injury Tuesday after being bitten during a joint training exercise with the Faketown Police Department's K9 unit, prompting a formal incident report and, according to the firefighters' union, "a few hard questions."

The K9 involved, a three year old Chihuahua named Nugget, has served on the force for eighteen months and holds certifications in narcotics detection and what the department's paperwork lists only as "general ferocity."

Police Chief Marguerite Alston said the exercise, designed to simulate a structure search, "went exactly as planned, right up until it didn't," and defended Nugget's conduct as "textbook."

The Faketown Firefighters Union disputed that characterization, releasing a statement asserting that Chief Okafor "did not resist in any meaningful sense" and that the incident report's use of the word "resisted" was "doing a lot of work it has not earned."

Okafor, reached by phone, declined to characterize the incident as an attack, calling it instead "a misunderstanding between professionals." He confirmed he is taking the rest of the week off, though he said this was "unrelated and previously scheduled."

Nugget remains on active duty. Department officials said there are no plans to reassign him, noting that his next scheduled joint exercise, a search and rescue drill with Public Works, is already on the calendar.