Source: Larry Busacca / Getty
On Monday, January 11, 206, the Norfolk, VA police were called out to a domestic violence situation between a husband and a wife.
Like some calls, the situation turned hairy and became a 7-hour Barricaded situation in Norfolk where their K-9 units had to be used.
During the standoff, the suspect started to s hoot at the officers, hitting one of their K-9’s named Krijger.
Krijger’s wound was fatal and he later died at their local vet office.The suspect was soon shot and another K-9 was released to help subdued him and to end the standoff.
The sources in Norfolk are saying that perhaps the K-9 would have survived the shooting on Monday if Krijger had been wearing a ballistic vest.
After the fallen four-year old Belgian Malinois K-9, a retired SEAL, Jimmy Hatch, launched a campaign in the name of Kriger in order to buy the bulletproof and stabbed proof vests.
It took those details to come out for someone to listen and extend a helping hand to the Norfolk Police depart.
The help came from the popular CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. Cooper donated a generous amount to the Norfolk-based charity dedicated to helping military and police dogs that is run by Hatch.
In 2009, Anderson Cooper met Hatch when he interviewed the retired SEAL. It a happened after Hatch had been wounded during a rescue of the now accused Army deserter, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl in Afghanistan from the Taliban fighters.
During his time in the military, Hatch was also a K-9 handler and he had two separate incidents where each of his Military dogs saved his life.
The last time was in 2009 during that rescue of the accused deserter, Hatch’s K-9 was killed.
There is no telling how much Anderson Cooper donated, but it was enough to buy each Norfolk K-9’s their own ballistic vest and enough to buy some vests for Hampton Roads-based K-9 units.
When talking about Anderson Cooper, Hatch said, “wasn’t keen on me publicizing his donation, but I told him I was going to do it anyway. He’s such a good dude. And genuine.”
It’s also good to know that each on of the purchased vests have a lifetime guarantee on them and that’s good considering that they roughly cost about $2,200 each.
This is why the dept. or other police depts. do not have vests, the cost is more than they can afford for each K-9.
Via:pilotonline.com
