OFFICE OF THE SHERIFF

PENDER COUNTY
Alan W. Cutler, Sheriff

August 25, 2020

On Saturday, August 15th, 2020 one of our deputies received a call from his father
concerning the well being of Stanley Benson, who had failed to show up at a scheduled
church work day event. Multiple attempts to contact Mr. Benson in the preceding 24
hours were unsuccessful. At approximately 10:32 am, deputies responded to Wolfe Run
Road in Burgaw to check on Mr. Benson at his residence. One of the responding
deputies knew Mr. Benson from church.

Upon arrival at Mr. Benson’s residence, the deputy who knew him went to his front door
and knocked in an attempt to make contact. As deputies approached his home, a dog
began barking from inside the residence. After a short time, Mr. Benson answered the
knock at the door and when he spoke to the deputy, he opened his door and the dog
ran out of the house. The dog continued to bark and growl while the initial deputy
explained why they were there.

When the dog ran outside of the house he aggressively proceeded toward two deputies
who were there to assist. The dog initially ran towards one of the two deputies, who was
able to jump into the open bed of a pickup truck to put distance between himself and the
dog. After the deputy jumped into the truck, the dog turned toward the third deputy who
attempted to retreat and look for protection from the dog. The dog continued to advance
aggresively toward the deputy while growling and showing his teeth. The deputy pulled
his sidearm and discharged one round, stopping the dog approximately one foot from
the deputy.

As I stated last week in the initial release, The Pender County Sheriff’s Office Policies
and Procedures states in Section 3.12: The killing of an animal is justified for self
defense, to prevent harm to the deputy or another person or when the animal is so
badly injured that it not continue to suffer.

This is a very unfortunate situation that has understandably impacted Mr. Benson, the
deputies who were there, and has caused a lot of concern within our community.

The investigation into this matter revealed that that the breed of dog, a Dutch Shepard
and Belgian Malinois mix is a breed that by nature is very protective of his home turf
and protective of his owner. Neighbors indicated that the dog could be aggressive with
new-comers to the property with whom the dog was not familiar. At least one neighbor
had reported a past instance where the dog ran toward children in the neighborhood in
an aggressive manner.

P.O. Box 1449 * 605 E. Fremont St. Burgaw, NC 28425 | Office (910) 259-1212 | Fax (910) 259-1509
 OFFICE OF THE SHERIFF
PENDER COUNTY
Alan W. Cutler, Sheriff

I hate that this event ended the way that it did but, I am confident that the deputy took
the action necessary to protect himself from imminent harm.

In closing, I would ask that anyone having pets, please secure your animals if any type
of first responder approaches your home. While we cannot change the outcome of this
case, I do want to do everything within my power to help reduce chances of this type of
event re-occuring.

Thank You,
Sheriff Alan W. Cutler

P.O. Box 1449 * 605 E. Fremont St. Burgaw, NC 28425 | Office (910) 259-1212 | Fax (910) 259-1509