By Adam Foxman
Ventura County Star
VENTURA, Calif. — Veteran of crime scenes and classrooms with power, long hair that earned him the nickname ‘lightning dust mop’ and a playful disposition, Sonny was a beloved member of the Ventura Police Department when he was fatally shot in 1984 while chasing a wanted parolee.
The 6-year-old German shepherd’s death was the catalyst for a 1985 amendment to California law that made it a felony to kill a police animal, and this week he will be honored during a memorial for law enforcement dogs at UC Davis in Northern California, officials said.
Sonny’s name will be among five added to the Faithful Partner monument at the university’s School of Veterinary Medicine today during a memorial ceremony for police dogs killed in the line of duty, according to a statement from the Western States Police Canine Association. Those names will join plaques honoring 34 other police dogs killed in California since 1960, according to the canine association, which sponsors the memorial.
Erected in 2002 with donated funds, the monument is a black granite star topped by a bronze, lifesize German shepherd, according to the canine association.
The ceremony will include an honor guard, pipers, a motorcade and a procession of more than 60 police and sheriff’s K-9 teams, according to the canine association.
Sonny’s partner, Vern Alstot, and all four officerand-dog teams from the Ventura police K-9 unit were among those who traveled to Davis to attend the ceremony.
Then a Ventura police officer, Alstot had been Sonny’s partner for three years when the canine was shot on Aug. 26, 1984.
Alstot and two other officers were chasing a wanted parolee who had kidnapped his girlfriend when Sonny was sent to apprehend the suspect. The man drew a gun and fired twice, fatally wounding the 60-pound dog.
The suspect later pleaded guilty and served six months of a one-year sentence, according to the canine association. Harming a police dog was a misdemeanor at the time, and outrage about the incident led lawmakers to change it to a felony, Alstot said.
Sonny’s death deeply affected Alstot, leading him to consider public safety jobs further from violence, he said. Alstot joined the Ventura Fire Department in 1985, serving until his retirement in late2009.
Together constantly at work and home, K-9 handlers and their four-legged partners have a special relationship that goes far beyond master and pet, Alstot said.
“He is almost your alter ego,” Alstot said. “I can’t think of a more lonesome time that I felt inmy police career than when I went back to duty in a police car withoutadog.”
K-9s also protect officers in a way humans can’t, Alstot said, adding that Sonny once kept him from being shot.
Alstot and Sonny were patrolling midtown Ventura about 2 a.m. one day in 1983 when Sonny perked up, alerting the officer to two men carrying items down the street in the dark, Alstot recalled. He arrested the men with Sonny’s help, and he later learned they had just robbed two women, he said. One of the victims had been sexually assaulted. During a later interview, oneof the suspects toldpolice they would have shot the officer, but they were afraid thepolicedogwould kill them, Alstot said.
“Sonny made a huge difference in my outcome,” he said.
Copyright 2011 Ventura County Star