Police Dog Gets Hero’s Farewell

Before a crowd that included police dog handlers from as far as Las Vegas, Oxnard officers on Tuesday said farewell to Rudy, the department’s first dog to die in the line of duty.

Rudy died of stab wounds April 19 after bringing down a suspect who allegedly had brandished a knife at officers.

Tuesday’s memorial observance at the Oxnard Performing Arts Center drew several hundred uniformed officers, city officials and residents who were touched by accounts of the dog’s death.

Dressed in black, Susan Komar of Oxnard kept her daughter Faith home from first-grade classes in order to attend.

“I wanted to show her how much a dog can give to the community,” she said.

Outside the hall, at least a dozen police dogs from far-flung departments sat in patrol cars, waiting for their handlers.

Inside, a table was stacked with tributes from children to Rudy and his handler, Officer J.R. Perez. On the auditorium’s stage, a local artist’s painting of Rudy stared down at the somber crowd. On either side stood two officers in full-dress regalia.

One by one, officers associated with Oxnard’s K-9 unit reminisced about Rudy, offering reflections on the 4-year-old dog’s willingness to put himself in harm’s way to track down suspects and protect his partner.

They told of Rudy and Perez dashing across busy Oxnard Boulevard and scaling fences to corner a fleeing robber. Rudy made it through training in record time, and, in his two years with the department, backed up Perez in more than 3,000 incidents, participated in 91 building searches, and on 32 occasions helped out SWAT teams, officials said.

“He loved to search,” said Rodney Spicer, the department’s dog trainer, as he stifled his sobs. “He loved to send people to jail.”

Chief Art Lopez lauded Rudy as one of our “guardian angels of the night.”

“I can stand here and tell you of loss and pain, but I won’t,” he said. “Rudy wouldn’t be thinking like that.”

When Perez made his way to the podium, the audience gave him a resounding ovation. He said he plans to continue his duties with a dog yet to be chosen, despite mourning for Rudy. Like other K-9 unit members, he kept his dog at home; Rudy became a favorite of neighborhood kids, who would yell their greetings whenever they saw him cruise by with Perez.

“I lost my friend, my partner, a member of my family,” Perez said. “He was a big, happy, 80-pound bundle of energy who loved to work, play, and, above all, get scratched behind the ear.”

The gathering was not just a remembrance of Rudy but a tribute to the city’s 22-year-old canine program. Funded largely by citizen contributions, it makes use of a breed called the Belgian Malinois. The department’s dogs are trained initially in Europe and respond to commands given in Dutch and Flemish.

After Rudy’s death, suspect Timothy Paul Knight, 20, of Oxnard, was charged with exhibiting a weapon while resisting arrest, battery on a police animal with an enhancement for killing the dog, and violating probation on a conviction for receiving stolen property. He remains in jail on $510,000 bail.