Posted on 11/30/2009 6:05:57 PM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
A Minneapolis K9 died after falling off the roof of a three-story building, during a possible burglary call.
Police say officers were called to the 200-block of Hennepin Avenue South for a suspected burglary in progress, just after 7 a.m. Monday.
The K9, named Chase, was called in to assist after police found evidence that the suspect was possibly still in the building. Chase and his handler, Officer Eric Lukes, were searching the roof when the dog fell and sustained grave injuries.
"While Chase was running over to the edge, he leapt over the side of the wall and fell four or five stories," said Sgt. Dan May, a Minneapolis Police Department K9 supervisor.
The K9 was taken to the University of Minnesota for medical treatment but couldn't be saved.
"It's terrible. Officer Lukes was obviously very shaken up by it," May said. "The whole police department is shaken up. You spend more time with your dog than you do with your significant other. Not only is it a loss for Eric, it is a loss for his family because dogs live with us and become a part of your family."
Chase has been in service with the Minneapolis Police Department since 2007 and has provided thousands of hours of service to the city and the department, handling assignments deemed too unsafe for his human partners.
Chase is the third Minneapolis Police Department K9 to die in the line of duty while searching for a suspect. The most recent was back in 1997 when Jake was killed when he went off a roof in downtown Minneapolis with his handler, Officer Lisa Kern.
Chase turned 3 years old in August. He will be cremated and his remains could be buried in the pet cemetery behind the Minneapolis Police Department kennel in Northeast Minneapolis.
Officers at the scene of the suspected robbery apprehended three suspects -- two women and a man -- in connection with this case. There will be no charges against the suspects for Chase's death, since they didn't directly cause the K9's fall.
"The MPD family is saddened by this loss and by what it means to Officer Lukes and his immediate family," said Chief Tim Dolan. "The service that the canines provide is invaluable to safeguarding the lives of our officers and the loss of a canine partner is very hard on the family of the officer who raise these animals as their own."
They are trained to jump over short walls in order to follow the scent of the BG. They have no idea that the wall might not have any roof beyond the wall.
Tragic.
Ping
Just damn
I think its a case where the handler needs more training and not so much the dog.
Yeah, he was just doing his job...
And usually it's the lack of concern perp's who get the concerning thoughts politically.
Just damn
Yes, very sad. GSD’s are sometimes too fearless for their own good. My shepherd scares the heck out of me when I have him running by the river and he stops just short of flying off the little 25 foot cliffs into the water.
Nice looking black sable GSD. Reminds me of my late GSD Raffle.
Did Jake's handler go off of the roof too? (just askin)
When I read that sentence, that was my first thought. Second thought was too many police dogs going off the roof in Minneapolis.
Sad...
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/news/20050524K9memorial.asp
Jake died in 1997 from falling off the roof. Officer Kerns died in 2004 while on active duty.
This next article talks about her sudden death from an aneurysm, her K9 officer at the time, and a little about Jake:
http://www.ci.minneapolis.mn.us/police/news/20030714LisaKern.asp
A partial article here about another dog she worked with, but to see the whole article one has to sign up, so I haven’t read the whole article:
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-62576719.html
Ah, okay, found more details about Jake’s accident. Hmm, 23 years before Jake, Jet died due to a searching for a burglar on a roof.:
Page 15
Minneapolis Police MinnesotaKilled December 2,1997 Courtesy Star TribuneBY JOY POWELL / Star Tribune
Minneapolis police officer Lisa Kern was still shouting, “No! No! No!” as she leaned over the edge of a four-story building and saw her dog, Jake, plunging toward the ground. Kern’s shouts alerted another officer below. He stepped out of the way just moments before the 65-pound German shepherd slammed into an alley.
Jake, one of 12 Minneapolis police dogs, suffered a broken spine and other internal injuries while searching for a burglary suspect downtown Sunday night. A veterinarian had to put Jake to sleep ,making him the second Minneapolis police canine to die in the line of duty.
Today, Jake will be cremated. Kern, 28, said she plans to spread his ashes at Cross Lake in Brainerd Fellow canine handlers from as far away as London were sending Kern condolences Monday over the Internet. She remained distraught over losing the 2-year-old, who had once been a stray. “He was loyal and hard-working,” Kern said of the dog, a sworn officer who rode patrols and lived with her. “He was the best partner I ever had. “ Kern and Jake trained last spring and hit the streets on the Fourth of July weekend. Jake specialized in drug detection, tracking people and searching buildings. Kern and other handlers said Jake had fast become one of the unit’s best,helping arrest nine suspects in his few months on the job. “The dog was a top-notch performer,”said Officer Greg Zipoy, the unit’s trainer. “Right up there with many of our dogs that had been out on the streets for years. He was young and had a lot of years left in him. “
The loss comes at a time when the unit is facing significant change. The 12 officers will be split up to work out of thecity’s five precincts rather than their kennel on 37th Avenue NE. The change takes effect Sunday.Some officers said they feel short-handed already, in part because an injured officer has been off work for more than a month. Some said assigning the teams to precincts might make it harder to respond to the 10,000 calls the unit averages a year. Some said they’d just miss the unit’s closeness. No matter what they think of the change, there’s one common denominator: love andrespect for their canines.
“Most of us have lost our dogs at one time or another and they’ve been replaced,” said Bill Lundquist, who has worked the canine detail for 27 of his 31 years on the Minneapolis police force. “We all adjust to that emotionally at different levels.... But we all feelthe loss. And one’s loss is the others’ loss.”It’s an unfortunate, ugly incident, and it will repeat itself down the line. “ Twenty-three years ago, another Minneapolis police dog fell to its death. Jet, a 3year-old German shepherd, leaped over a 2-foot-high parapet and fell five stories. Like Jake, Jet was on a roof, hunting for a burglar. His handler now retired Officer Doug Madsen.
A Ramsey County dog, Bud, was killed in January 1994 in Little Canada when he was sent into a garage tohelp catch a car thief. The thief shot the dog, then was shot and killed by police. Bud was one offour Ramsey County police dogs at the time. That same year, the most notorious canine-killing inthe metro area involved the slaying of a dog and his handler in St. Paul. Officer Tim Jones and his dog, Laser, were shot while tracking a gunman who had earlier killed another officer.
St. Paul’s canine unit regularly wins national awards, including taking the team trophy at the National FieldTrials in Florida in October. It has 21 handler-dog teams, with 17 German shepherds and fourretrievers.In Minneapolis, one of the police dogs is a bloodhound. The rest are German shepherds.
Supervisors are in the process of lining up another dog for Kern. Typically, training lasts 13 weeksand costs more than $5,000.
http://www.uspcak9.com/pdf/valor.pdf
Thank You kindly
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