Marion boy raises money for fallen police K-9

Jun 14, 2021

MARION — A lot of boys want to be police officers when they grow up and many of them want to work with dogs, but few have done as much for K-9 police as eight-year-old Brantley Dubois of Marion.

Brantley wants to be a K-9 police officer when he’s older, but in the meantime he is finding ways to help out by fundraising for the Braintree Police Department, whose police K-9, Kitt, was recently killed in a shooting that also injured two police officers.

Brantley has been hand-making beaded bracelets decorated with “BPD” and “Kitt” beads, and selling them for $3 apiece with all proceeds going to the Braintree Police Department.

Since making a post about the bracelets on Monday, June 7, he has taken orders for over 200 bracelets and raised almost $1000, far exceeding his $500 goal.

But Brantley doesn’t plan to stop filling orders anytime soon.

“With the support that he’s gotten, we don’t want to cut it off,” said Justin Dubois, Brantley’s father, “the goal is for him to raise as much as he can and deliver it to Braintree Police Department.”

Brantley has been making the bracelets himself with “a little bit of help from my mom and dad,” he said.

“We so appreciate all the support for him,” said Brantley’s mother Courtney Dubois. “He couldn’t do it without everyone spreading the word.”

Justin, who is a firefighter in Mattapoisett, said that Brantley has always wanted to be a police officer, even though his parents always pushed firefighter birthdays and costumes.

“It was tough, but he could be doing a lot worse,” said Justin.

Brantley has clearly inherited his family’s love of animals though. The family has always had dogs and currently have a beagle named Sadie and a border collie named Lizzy that was rescued from Antigua.

Brantley did a similar fundraiser in 2018 when a Yarmouth police officer named Sean Gannon was killed and his K-9 partner Nero was injured in a shooting. Brantley raised $400 to help with the dog’s medical expenses and hand delivered it to the Yarmouth Police Department.

Nero is now the poster-dog for a new law being discussed by state legislators, dubbed “Nero’s Law,” that would allow first responders to treat and transport police K-9s that have been injured in the line of duty.