Police dog will carry on Officer Brian Shaw's memory with Allegheny Valley Regional Police

The family of slain New Kensington police Officer Brian Shaw attended the introduction of the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department’s new police dog.

Carr was introduced to the public Tuesday night outside of the Springdale Township office.

The Officer Brian Shaw Foundation provided $15,000 for the dog and its police training. Also kicking in for Carr’s expenses was 4-year old Zoey Walker of Springdale Township, who raised more than $1,000 through lemonade and hoagie sales and other events.

Before he worked as a full-time New Kensington police officer, Shaw was a part-timer on several other Alle-Kiski Valley forces, including Cheswick and Springdale Townships. The two departments merged last year to form the Allegheny Valley Regional Police Department.

“We believe Brian’s memory will live on through Carr,” said Michael Girardi, Regional Police board member and president of Cheswick Council. “He is here to watch over our communities.”

Girardi also recognized the work of Zoey, calling her an “amazing 4-year-old girl.”

Carr, a Belgian Malinois, is nearly 2 years old. This year, he was one of 30 dogs in training for police departments across the country at Shallow Creek Kennels in Mercer County, according to Allegheny Valley Regional police Chief Mike Naviglia.

Before the dog was introduced in what officials called a “swearing-in ceremony,” Girardi called for a moment of silence in honor of Shaw, who was fatally shot during a foot chase after a traffic stop in 2017.

That somber moment was followed by Carr rollicking and mingling with the small crowd, with people taking turns petting and hugging the unusually social K-9.

Carr nuzzled Steffan Shaw of New Kensington, who is Brian Shaw’s brother and a Penn Hills police patrolman.

“Brian loved dogs,” said Shaw, who remembered his brother posting photos of his parents’ two Labrador retrievers.

“If a K-9 officer would have been there the night Brian died, things could have turned out differently,” Shaw said.

That’s one of the reasons why the Officer Brian Shaw Foundation donates to police departments to have police dogs. The foundation’s first donation toward a K-9 went to the New Kensington Police Department last year, which didn’t have a police dog when Shaw served.

This year, the foundation, which recently held a successful gun bash, decided to donate to Allegheny Valley Regional because of Shaw’s work there and Naviglia’s long record of K-9 training for his and other departments, Steffan Shaw said.

Shaw believes in the necessity of police dogs.

“In Penn Hills, we have three K-9s, with a fourth on its way, and we have one every shift,” he said.

For Naviglia, Carr carries on his two decades of training and working with K-9s. The police dog will assist officers in catching suspects, building searches, area searches, narcotics investigations and more, he said.

Carr is the fourth police dog for Naviglia, first for Springdale Township and now the Allegheny Valley Police Department.

The need for a new police dog, after the department’s last one, Andor, retired, touched Zoey Walker, and her family helped her run with it.

Zoey’s mother, Ashley, and grandmother, Angie Hare, weren’t surprised by the young girl’s knack for fundraising.

“She always wants to help somebody,” Walker said.

“She could even sell lemonade in 40-degree weather,” Hare said.

Asked why she got involved, Zoey simply said, “Because I like to. And I bought doggie toys and a doggie bed.”

Hoagies still are for sale to benefit the township’s K-9 and other expenses. Learn more by visiting Angie Hare’s Facebook page.