LASD sniffer dog saved thanks to bulletproof vest
On April 17, a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department dog was shot. The vest he was wearing saved his life.
Fox – LA
On a dark night in late April, Wayne County Sheriff’s Cpl. Rick Cadez and his partner, K-9 Gunner, carefully wound their way through the back streets of Inkster. It was pouring with rain. They were searching for two men who had fled a shooting. Witnesses warned Cadez that the men were armed.
Gunner had to find the suspects, so he was up front, which meant he would be the first to take the bullets if shots were fired. The dog had no bulletproof vest to protect him, a fact that Cadez always kept in mind.
“You’re always hyper-vigilant about your surroundings, and you can run into these armed individuals at any time,” Cadez said. “You don’t want one of your partners, a human, to not be protected by a vest. (Gunner) is also a member of the police force. Tracking in heavy rain really disrupts the ground scent for the dog, and the suspects got away. But you’re tracking someone who’s armed, and it would have been beneficial if the dog had been wearing a vest.”
Situations like these inspired Cadez to act. Earlier this year, Cadez applied for a custom ballistic vest for Gunner from Brady’s K-9 Fund, a nonprofit founded in 2018 by a then-8-year-old boy in Ohio that provides bulletproof vests for police and military dogs. In late March, Gunner’s vest was approved.
A man who lives in Howell donated the money for Gunner’s vest by working overtime at his job at the Ford Rouge plant to pay for the vest.
On July 17, Gunner received his new vest, valued at about $1,500. In addition to the vest, the sheriff’s department also received a separate grant to purchase two new dogs for explosives detection and patrol work, bringing the K-9 unit to six dogs.
“They’re invaluable,” Cadez said. “As a tracking device, their sense of smell is a million times better than a human’s. They can literally do something we can’t do in explosive detection. They’re a vital part of securing venues like the NFL Draft or visiting dignitaries… these dogs go into these buildings and comb them through.”
Police dog and family dog
Deaths in the line of duty are a harsh reality of this job. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, five police dogs in the United States have died in the line of duty this year through July. Last year, 26 dogs died, 10 from gunshots.
Gunner is Cadez’s third canine partner in his 14 years with the unit. The 21-month-old German Shepherd-Belgian Malinois dog was certified for patrol duty by the National Police Association of Professional Canine Handlers on April 10. He is a “dual-purpose patrol dog,” meaning he has multiple duties. Gunner detects explosives, pursues criminals and looks for evidence, such as when someone throws a gun in a field.
“If a house or building is broken into and we are not sure if the perpetrator is still there, we send the dog as a tracking device,” said Cadez.
The relationship between dog and handler runs deep. The dogs live with their police partners, often as family pets when they’re not chasing bad guys, so it’s important to Cadez that Gunner comes home alive to his children.
“For a long time, vests were not an option for tracking dogs,” said Cadez. “The vests we had before were so restrictive and heavy that they were almost more dangerous because they would tire the dog. You want them to be at their best.”
Gunner’s new vest is a K-9 Streetfighter from LOF Defense Systems. It’s lightweight and cut to fit Gunner comfortably, so he can wear it throughout his shift and be ready to spring into action at any time while protecting his vital organs, Cadez said.
A little boy puts vests on 1,100 dogs
In 2018, Brady Snakovsky, then 8, of Strongsville, Ohio — about a 30-minute drive south of Cleveland — was watching the television show “Live PD.” He noticed that the police dogs were not wearing bulletproof vests, his mother, Leah Tornabene, told the Free Press.
“He asked me if he could help the dogs there,” Tornabene said.
They started with a GoFundMe goal of $1,500 to buy a vest. But local news picked up the story and it gained momentum. A year later, the ASPCA named Snakovsky “Kid of the Year” for outfitting dogs with vests.
This year, Brady’s K-9 Fund has $1.3 million. Since its inception, the fund has outfitted 1,137 dogs with vests, with 56 dogs on the waiting list, Tornabene said. Brady is 14 and works at school, so Tornabene is the fund’s president.
“I’ve helped the K-9s in Ukraine, we’ve handled all their army dogs. We’ve been with the U.S. Army in Canada, Sweden, the UK and Afghanistan,” Tornabene said. “Gunner is one of our many dogs who need help. Handlers contact me and are put on a waiting list.”
Typically, the wait time is three months, and then a few more months to customize the vest for the dog, she said.
Small overtime hours at Ford
Cadez was notified on March 28 that Gunner had received a vest. A sponsor, Tom Sperling of Howell, donated the $1,200 for the vest (Brady’s K-9 Fund receives a discount on the $1,500 price), Tornabene said.
A week earlier, Sperling, 61, sponsored a vest for Kent County Sheriff’s Department police dog Zeke. Sperling said he’s always had a soft spot for dogs, but it grew even more after his beloved Belgian shepherd, Hercules, died last year. Sperling has sponsored about half a dozen police dogs in Brady’s K-9 Fund, but Zeke and Gunner were the first to whom he was able to personally present the vests.
“That was the coolest thing, seeing where my money was going and how grateful they were,” Sperling said.
Sperling, a skilled worker at Ford’s Rouge plant, said that to afford the vests, “I just work a few extra hours. I thought, if this little boy is doing this, I have to help him somehow. K-9 Smoke was the first one I did about five years ago in Ocean City, Maryland. But a lady sponsored 100 dogs through Brady’s K-9 Fund. I’m trying to catch up with her now.”
Choosing the right dog
To be a patrol dog in Wayne County requires a high level of work ethic, courage, confidence, intelligence and sociability.
Cadez got Gunner on October 30, 2023. You guessed it, he had applied for a scholarship. The AKC Kennel awarded him $10,000 for a new dog, so he flew to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to the Southern Coast K-9 Kennel to evaluate dogs, most of which had no training.
“They all come from Europe; there are some in the U.S.,” Cadez said. “Gunner came from Hungary. In the first year of their lives, they are bred and evaluated. The ones that play and nap are sold as pets.”
On that October day, Cadez said, he looked at about ten dogs. He wanted to see a hunting instinct.
“He knows there’s something hidden and he wants to find it. That’s the only goal in his life. With Gunner, it was extreme,” said Cadez. “If there’s a bomb, you want to know that he’s going to spend an hour looking for it, not that he’s going to stop after 10 minutes and say, ‘I don’t like this game anymore.'”
Gunner also stood out for his personality because he had an “off switch” and was friendly when he wasn’t working, Cadez said.
“He had a really nice personality,” Cadez said. “You want them to be fearless and face any kind of threat head-on. But you also want to know that they can be safe and social in other environments. He’s phenomenal with my kids and in public with people when he’s not working.”
After paying the $10,000 for Gunner, Cadez rented a car to drive the dog back to Michigan. “We stayed at a little hotel in North Carolina … so it was a really cool experience to bond with him for two days,” he said.
Two new dogs
On July 22, Cpl. Michael Noe and Deputy Ramiro Sauceda headed to Shallow Creek Kennels in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, to select their new K-9 partners from the other grant, which the department declined to disclose details about. Each of them chose a year-old German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix that would work as dual-purpose patrol dogs like Gunner.
Noe named his dog Ghost and Sauceda named his Zuko.
“Of the 10 dogs we tested, they were both the most promising,” said Cadez. “They showed the outstanding drive and confidence, as well as the sociability we are looking for.”
Protection of Presidents
Gunner has made no arrests or found any bombs so far – the latter is a good thing. His biggest deployment to date came on May 6, when Vice President Kamala Harris was in Detroit at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The US Secret Service asked Gunner for help.
“Gunner helped with the explosives search. That was pretty cool because we checked the bags and backpacks of the journalists who entered the secure area,” Cadez said.
And Cadez knows that in the future, Gunner will wear a vest the next time he and Gunner are called out to search for armed criminals. “So he is protected when he gets out of the vehicle.”
Contact Jamie L. LaReau: [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @Subscribe. Read more about General Motors and subscribe to our car newsletter. Become a subscriber.
