The K-9 bit ME

We were out working a special detail one Saturday afternoon. I was assigned to work with the K-9 officer in a high drug traffic area of town. I'm well known in the department for my pursuit of street level narcotics and pairing us together was a direct reflection of that.

Ultimately we initiated a traffic stop on a vehicle during the course of which our narcotics officer contacted me via cell phone that he had been getting several complaints about the driver selling pills. I told him that I would take care of it.

I asked for consent to search which the driver indicated he was willing to sign. While I was retrieving the consent form from the patrol unit, the K-9 officer began to frisk him for weapons. While he was frisking him, his hand hit a square bottle of pills in the drivers front pocket. When he asked him about the bottle, the driver took off running.

The K-9 officer needed time to get his K-9 out of his unit and I instinctively took up the foot chase with the driver. I heard when the K-9 officer gave the warnings to the fleeing suspect that he would release the K-9 if he didn't stop. I backed WAY off.

Soon the K-9 was chasing said bad guy. I ran behind (from a good distance) when I saw the bad guy take a hard left by a building. I'm not sure how it happened but the K-9 became confused for a minute. I saw the suspect run into a building and slam the door. By this time, I was at a full sprint and followed the suspect into the building. The suspect was literally trying to force his way through the back wall of the building when I slammed into him.

So there I am in this small shed/building fighting with the suspect trying to take him down when what do I suddenly hear in the shed with us. You guessed it. The K-9.

As I "tussled" with the suspect, I positioned him between the K-9 and myself. However, I have a pretty wide stance to keep my leverage on the suspect. The next thing I know the K-9 has latched onto my right ankle. Oh crap.

Well thankfully I had two things going for me in that scenario. One, I was wearing boots. Two, I knew that as long as I didn't pull away from the K-9 that it wouldn't bare down any harder. At that time the bite was firm, but not painful. So know I'm still fighting with the bad guy, and I have K-9 latched onto my ankle. Can it get any wilder? When the clouds parted and the lights from heaven shown through the door of the building and in walked the K-9 officer. He pulled the K-9 off of my leg (Thank you!) and held him at bay while I got a cuff on one of the suspects wrist. The suspect was still trying to get away and made the mistake of swinging his arm at the K-9. Well, I wasn't the only one bitten that day. I didn't have a mark on me, the suspect however wasn't so lucky.

Apparently the K-9 had responded to the sounds of us fighting.

Bad guy got medical care and went to jail.

There were some calculated risks taken and some mistakes made. It is best to stay clear when the K-9 is in pursuit. I made a decision that I didn't want to loose the hot pursuit of the suspect who at the speed of real time I thought had forced his way into a residence. It wasn't until I was in the attached building that I realized it was a storage shed. I mean, can you imagine the horror to a family to have a felon busting through the door of your home?

All ended well and we live to chase another day.

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