By Rick McCrabb
Dayton Daily News
MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Middletown police Officer Dennis Jordan said he lost his best friend, his best partner in the matter of a few minutes.
His police dog, Gunner, a 7 1/2-year-old German Shepherd, was killed Monday afternoon after the barn where he slept caught fire. Gunner escaped out of the burning barn and into an attached fenced cage, but the heat from the flames was too much, Jordan said.
Jordan said he received a call his wife and fellow police Officer Holly Owens-Jordan around 1:30 p.m. Monday that the Madison Twp. Fire Department had been dispatched to a barn fire on their street. When Jordan looked outside their home, the barn was engulfed in flames.
The fire is still under investigation, but it’s believed a heater used to keep Gunner warm was the source of the fire, said Sgt. Andy Warrick, the department’s canine supervisor. A retired police dog, Ajax, also lives with the Jordans, so the dogs, because of their aggressive behaviors, are kept in different locations, Warrick said.
On Tuesday, a few wooden pieces of the barn were still smoldering as the Jordans surveyed the damage. Jordan said he was “at a loss for words” because he spent more time with Gunner than with his family over the last six years.
“He was one of a kind,” Jordan said.
Jordan said there were times when he and Gunner were eight miles back in the woods hunting down an armed felon. At that moment, they relied on those hundreds of hours of training to survive.
“There is a bond of trust. I’m going to take care of him, and he’s going to take care of me, and we’re going to go home safe,” Jordan said. “So I come back to my family. When we get home, he turns into a family pet.”
Warrick, whose badge was covered with black elastic cloth, called Gunner’s death “devastating” for the city’s police department. While police dogs are considered “another tool” in police work, Warrick said the canines “become part of your family, they become your partner.”
Gunner was purchased in 2009 by the Middletown Division of Police for $6,500. He was one of two police dogs in the department. The other, Aki, was purchased in 2013 for $8,500 and alternated second- and third-shift duties with Gunner.
This past summer, Gunner was named the top detector in the narcotics division at the U.S. Police Canine Association Regional competition in Kentucky. He was set to compete in the nationals this year.
A memorial service for Gunner is set for 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Middletown canine training facility, 1940 Runway Maintenance Road.
The local Fraternal Order of Police Associates is in the process of collecting donations to cover the police dog’s final costs, such as his burial and headstone, as well as for the costs of purchasing and training of a new police dog.
Copyright 2015 the Dayton Daily News