By Steve Liewer
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
SAN DIEGO — Several people left flowers yesterday for 6½-year-old Stryker, the department’s most experienced police dog, at a memorial for Oceanside officers who have died in the line of duty.
“He was in the prime of his career,” said Officer Greg Rainwater, a former handler. “It’s a real tragedy.”
Stryker, a Belgian Malinois, died on the job about 7:20 p.m. Monday. A drunken-driving suspect whom Stryker had knocked down on the San Diego-Coronado Bridge picked up the 75-pound dog and leapt over the concrete barricade into San Diego Bay.
Cory Byron, 27, of Vista somehow survived the 200-foot drop, but Stryker did not. Byron is hospitalized at the University of California San Diego Medical Center with a collapsed lung, a California Highway Patrol spokeswoman said. A Harbor Patrol boat fished both out of the chilly waters.
Byron was arrested on suspicion of causing the death of a police dog, evading arrest and driving under the influence of alcohol, the spokeswoman said.
Oceanside police said Officer Kedrick Sadler was patrolling with Stryker when he witnessed a traffic accident near Benet Road and state Route 76 about 6:30 p.m. Police say the driver headed south in his GMC pickup on Interstate 5, with Sadler, Carlsbad police and highway patrol officers in pursuit.
Less than an hour later, the motorist exited I-5 at the bridge and got out of the the truck mid-span. Sadler released Stryker, who police say bit the man and pulled him to the ground. The motorist stood up, grabbed the dog and jumped over the concrete barrier into the bay, the CHP said. It was not clear if the dog had let go of the suspect.
Stryker’s death greatly upset Sadler, said Rainwater, who trained the dog for about six months when it joined the force in 2003.
Officers spend about 10 hours per day working with their canine partners.
“You spend more time with the dog than you do your family,” Rainwater said. “Every day you’re with that dog, the bond gets stronger.”
Copyright 2007 San Diego Union-Tribune