Phoenix police are still mourning the loss of one of their own Wednesday afternoon. As we've reported, K9 Officer Bane was killed Tuesday following a chase through central Phoenix.
Officers arrested two suspects in connection with that chase: 27-year-old Jairo Contreras Quinter and 24-year-old Laura Dagnino.
Quinter faces multiple charges in connection with Tuesday's wild chase through town.
Phoenix Police Officer Jon Howard says Quinter took off on foot and took cover inside a random home near the 29th Avenue and Bethany Home Road. That’s when officers released 3-year-old Bane to sniff out the suspect and as a result, the dog was found dead.
“The dog becomes your partner, becomes your eyes and ears. We're so attached to them so quickly -- the handler is understandably upset,” Howard said.
Howard was a dog handler for 10 years. He says to civilians, the dogs are pets, but to the department they’re invaluable partners.
“We certainly consider them as part of our family, but the law protects them as though they are a service animal, much like a seeing-eye dog,” he said.
The training for K9 officers is a four-month process at 40 hours a week.
“We're using them mostly for their noses, right, so they're locating devices, so they help us find things like drugs, missing people, lost people and in this case suspects,” he added.
Police say Quinter has minor wounds consistent with a dog bite and that Bane was able to find him in the home and assistant in the arrest.
“We knew this man was extremely violent, we knew he was very dangerous and we knew he had access to weapons," Howard said. "We'd actually seen him with weapons, so when the opportunity presents itself we ask our dog to do things that are above and beyond what most people are capable of."
Each animal costs the department about $10,000, providing service for 7-10 years, sadly not the case for Bane.
We're told the handler has taken a few days off following Bane's death. Meanwhile, officers explain that while to the department bane protects and serves, under law he's not a police officer.
“When we lose a family member, when we lose an animal that's done so much for their community, it certainly impacts us all as though it was an officer in many cases,” he said.
Quinter are facing a slew of charges including armed robbery, aggravated assault and felony flight, as well as the felony of harming a working animal.
