Falko, a Toledo Police Department K9, was shot dead in the crawl space under an abandoned house by a car thief who was wanted for murder in Cleveland. Falko's handler, and a two man wagon crew were in foot pursuit , the dirtbag ran into the abandoned house. One officer stayed outside, Falko, his handler, and another officer went in after the guy. Falko alerted to the entrance to the crawl inside the house, and after ordering the suspect out, or the dog would be sent, Falko dove into the crawl space, where he was immediately shot in the face, the bullet coming to rest in his abdominal cavity. He died instantly. The other officer pulled the distraught handler out of the way and returned fire. They then exited the house and established a perimeter. A negotiator and SWAT were dispatched to the scene. SWAT deployed a robot, and the camera showed no movement from either dog or dirtbag for two hours. Ultimately, TFD went in and the guy was pronounced dead, and the floor was cut up so that Falko and the dead suspect could be removed. It looks like the bad guy offed himself.
Falko will have a standard Line of Duty Death Sevice on Thursday of this coming week.
Like all K9s, Officer Falko took a bullet so his handler wouldn't. A permanent memorial will be established. Toledo currently has 10 K9s. Falko is the first ever to be killed in the line of duty.

What a sad story. My sympathy goes out to Falko's handler. Falko sounds like he was a very special dog. There is not much worse than losing a special canine friend. My thoughts go out to the Officer that lost Falko.

Poor brave doggie. I'm for arming the robots in a case like that.

__________________
"He was kinda funny lookin'"

Too bad the suspect killed himself. I would have burned the house down around him.

I read this story the other day...very sad.

All we hear lately in the press is criticism of the police, and it seems like the whole country is ready to pounce on a cop who does something wrong, and then use that incident to indict all police officers. In the meantime, the vast majority of police officers work in obscurity to keep us safe...life isn't fair, is it?

God bless Falco and his human partners.

What about the cop in Texas last week that left his K-9 partner in his car for 20 hours? Would you burn his house around him too?

__________________
Smith & Wesson beat four aces

Yep


........

our condolences to his handler...as you said... Although a dog's uncannily acute sense of smell allows them to find hidden perps/people during building searches, one of the main reasons we employ police dogs, is that it is far better to lose a good working dog than to lose a handler... and we had an imported Sch II Doberman ...

__________________
be safe,enjoylife,journey well

RIP K9 Falko. My PD lost a K9 a few years back from a foot chase. He was chasing a perp and closing when the bad guy crossed a big street. Perp made it but the K9 was hit by a car & later passed. Perp was caught & got some justice. More recently, K9 Jake was stabbed by a suspect but stayed in the fight. The perp exited the house with a gun trying to kill the K9 & promptly met 5.56mm rounds which resolved the incident. No prosecution required!

These K9's take the place of a person, so they're cops too just like their equine counterparts. It hurts us when one is a LODD.

We'll sir here in AZ people leave KIDS in their cars with fatal consequences! Some have been prosecuted, many have not. There's always more to the story. A Chandler Police K9 officer accidentally left his K9 in the car. He was charged criminally but; given the totality of everything the case was dismissed because it was an accident. Put it this way, fewer people have been prosecuted for killing kids in a car than those that have. Those incidents are a tragedy no matter what, but we as LE must investigate every incident to ascertain if there is intent, negligence, or just stupidity involved.

AZ police get calls ALL THE TIME of dogs/pets left in cars. It's pathetic how many morons knowingly leave their pet in a locked up car with the engine off "for just a bit" when it's over 100! Cars are a furnace in minutes down here. It was 117F last Friday in the Valley of the Sun!

So %'s wise, citizens are FAR more guilty of that behavior than police.

Oh yea, the suspect in the shooting was an interstate felon wanted for homicide.....do you really care if they torched the house?

Yea I do care. Everyone, even the scumbags should have equal protection under the Bill of Rights. It's what makes the US unique.

It's disheartening that you as a LEO don't recognize that.

__________________
Smith & Wesson beat four aces

It was meant as sarcasm. Hell, I don't know if it was HIS house. If not then no, don't burn it. Keep in mind, the very fact I'm on this forum should clue you in that I'm very pro constitution. I'm not one of those cops on YouTube that we see hassling folks about legal behavior. Bottom line: murderer kills PSD, then offs self before killing another HUMAN! I say GOOD! Problem solved, problem staying solved!!

It was a partly boarded up abandoned house.

I am just glad the dirt bag did not get room and board for 20 years and cost the state more $$$$$.

Eye for an eye, in this case seemed the correct thing.
Killing a dog is about as low as a person can go.

Killing an "Officer" should get the maximum sentence......
one way or the other.

I think using dogs like this might be a little Harsh. The police officer took this job knowing he could be killed. The dog has no choice but to obey. Kinda like an unborn child has no say to the abortion that will end its life.

Oklahoma City PD had a police dog get stabbed to death not long ago and the perp was shot by the dogs handler. Much better to loose a dog than have a policeman get stabbed to death but very sad also. The German Shepherd had a huge funeral that was televised on the news and it was kinda weird seeing a big funeral with lots of flowers and an open casket with the dogs head sticking out.

Sounds good...

Service animals are sadly intended to be used so a human doesn't have to be in harms way. No one likes it when a PSD is injured or killed. However, without the PSD a police officer, soldier or Marine getting hurt or killed. The Taliban & Al Quieda target K9 handlers because they know the advantage the dogs have over their human counterparts.

ODMP.org has a K9 section. Here's Falko's memorial. Officer Down Memorial Page K9 (ODMP K9)