Beginning of Falco K9 Academy Part 2

 Falco began to whine and bark at the pedestrian door. I finally convinced myself that it was possible that he had led me to the felony suspects. I got my best friend Chuck on the radio and told him what I had. He immediately responded to my location. Upon his arrival I showed him the pedestrian door that was a jar and told him how Falco had led me to it.  We decided to call for a Sergeant and further assistance.

A perimeter was established around the house and the residents were evacuated from the home. Chuck and I were given the okay to search the garage with the help of Falco. I pushed the door open with my foot and found that it only opened half way. I saw a lot of boxes and junk and was not surprised the door did not open all the way. I shined my flashlight through the doorway and saw one subject lying on the garage floor. The odd thing was he appeared to be asleep…but as I looked closer at him I saw he was breathing very heavy as if he were scared or just got through running a mile.

I had my eyes, gun and light trained on the “suspect” with chuck over my shoulder doing the same. I gave commands to the suspect to walk towards my voice with his hands up. I got no response. I continued to yell at the suspect and although he would fidget there was still no cooperation.  At about this point I realized I had not heard a sound from Falco who would normally be barking and growling at an identified suspect and he was not. I was sure that Chuck was covering the primary suspect as I looked down to see what Falco was doing. My thought was that maybe he couldn’t see the suspect and if I could get him to  bark  maybe  the  primary  suspect  would  comply.   However, when I looked down            I saw that Falco was struggling to get around the half open door. Because he had not let me down before I released some more leash and allowed him to go around the door.    Just as I did I heard a loud guttural growl and saw him begin to pull back as if he        were attempting to drag something out from behind the door.  With one big… pull I saw he had a human leg in his mouth.

I immediately told Chuck that there was someone behind the door. I then ordered the subject out from behind the door while we kept another eye on the subject on the floor or the garage. At that moment I heard the man behind the door say, “Okay I’m coming out please tell the dog to let go.” At the same moment I heard a metallic object hit the ground. The subject on the ground suddenly became wide awake and complied with our commands.  Both subjects were taken into custody and detained outside the garage.

Chuck and I went into the garage to insure there were no other suspects hiding inside. As I entered I looked behind the door and found the handgun on the ground that was used in the shooting on State College Blvd…it was the metallic sound that we heard fall to the ground.

It was clearly apparent the suspects were attempting to get us to enter the garage with the noncompliance of suspect #1.  If we would have entered I am sure suspect #2’s job was to shoot.