COLUMBUS, Ind. (WISH) — A police dog with the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Office was killed Saturday during a pursuit of a suspect.
Sheriff’s deputies responded to a domestic battery call on Saturday evening sometime before 7 p.m., and a suspect there fled the scene, leading police on a chase, Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers said Saturday in a post on Facebook.
Later, the suspect was found near 600 South and 650 West and ran from deputies, so the police dog, Diesel, was released and ran into the woods near Interstate 65, while Diesel’s handler stayed to watch two people in the car the suspect had left behind, the sheriff said.
Deputies found the suspect, who was not named in the post, hiding in a ditch. Diesel was found alongside the interstate, and on Saturday night. Myers said “it is not known for sure how he was killed,” but “K9 Diesel was doing his job when he was killed.”
Diesel was taken to the sheriff’s office and his handler and the handler’s family got to have time with him, Myers said.
“I am absolutely heart broken,” Myers said in the post. “I am stuck at home with Covid when I need to be with my deputies.”
The domestic battery victim was taken to an area hospital for her injuries. No additional information was provided about the domestic battery incident, and Myers said the office was in the middle of its investigation.
