Wing restaurants collecting money for police dog memorial
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Several Pittsburgh-area Buffalo Wild Wings restaurants were collecting money to help pay for a statue to memorialize a city police dog that was fatally stabbed last year.
So far, about $31,000 of the $50,000 cost for the Officer Rocco statue has been raised.
The restaurants were donating sales proceeds during Wednesday’s Remembering Officer Rocco Event.
Twenty-two-year-old John Rush was convicted last month of stabbing the dog in January 2014 during an arrest. The incident prompted the Legislature to stiffen the penalty for abusing or killing police animals.
The statue is being added to the “Ever Watchful” memorial that already pays tribute to slain officers on the city’s North Side. Pittsburgh artist Susan Wagner sculpted that memorial and is adding the Officer Rocco statue to it.