Lake City Police Department's K-9 Officer "Trooper" found dead
Lake City, FL (Posted July 23, 2011 07:03 am)
Photo: origin unknown
Another K-9 Officer goes down from purported "heat exhaustion" in Columbia County, Florida. Two years ago it was the Sheriff's K-9 Officer Brutus. This time it was the Lake City Police Department's K-9 "Trooper," handled by Police Officer Kevin Johns.
According to the police press release, which was distributed by the LCPD at 09:50 pm yesterday evening, K-9 Officer Trooper was off duty and found dead by his handler 01:10 pm yesterday afternoon, at home in his kennel, one hour and forty minutes after PO Johns left him alone. The report does not explain what was meant by a "kennel."
The report claims that when Officer Johns left K-9 Officer Trooper in his kennel at 11:30 am, the dog was fine. When Officer Johns returned home, he found Trooper dead.
Then, according to LCPD Shaw's press release, Officer Johns "made appropriate contact to the administrative staff of the Police Department to report the incident." It would appear this means he called the police, who then apparently responded to Officer John's home and took the dead K-9 officer to an as yet unknown veterinarian.
The press release claims "the autopsy revealed the cause of death was due to heat exhaustion."
Who was K-9 Officer Trooper
According to the LCPD, Trooper was a 7 year old Malinois K-9. He had served as a K-9 Officer for the Lake City Police Department since January 2010. K-9 Officer Trooper was certified in the detection of drugs and narcotics in October of 2010 and made numerous cases since that time.
Epilogue
If housed in a properly constructed dog run with proper ventilation, shade and water, K-9 Officer Trooper or any other dog should not die from heat exhaustion or heat stroke.
Police K-9 Officers cost anywhere from $6000 up to $25,000.
Does the culture of the Columbia County's good ol' boys allow the LCPD or the Sheriff's Office to fairly and truthfully investigate and then tell the truth?
Was Trooper murdered by drug dealers? What does the LCPD mean by a "kennel?"
Failure to properly care for K-9 Officer Trooper in such a way that caused his death, in the civilized world, would be felony animal cruelty, punishable by hard time.
The press release was received by the Observer at 09:50 pm. At 09:55 pm the Observer called Officer Shaw's cell phone.
Officer Shaw did not pick up the phone. The Observer left a message.
