Metro officers, public say goodbye to slain police dog

Friday, Oct. 31, 2003 | 9:50 a.m.

More than 100 people including several Metro Police officers with their dogs in tow Thursday filed silently by a casket containing 18-month-old Buddy, a German shepherd killed in the line of duty last week.

Buddy accompanied Metro Officer John Jenkins everywhere for 30 days until a week ago today, when he was shot and killed while waiting, a muzzle over his snout, in his partner's sport utility vehicle.

"The pain of the loss is not diminished by the short time we had to bond," Jenkins said, holding back tears, standing by the casket at the Craig Road Pet Cemetery. "This was a very traumatic experience. There's no way to describe the frustration I felt that night."

About midnight Oct. 24 Daniel Nunez, 23, carjacked a couple stopped at a gas station at Martin Luther King Boulevard and Bonanza Road, police said.

As police tried to chase Nunez down, twice more he carjacked vehicles, until he came upon Las Vegas Paiute tribal police officer Mike Hinton at Lake Mead Boulevard near Buffalo Drive. Nunez, who was armed, took Hinton's weapon and drove off in the officer's car.

A tribal police dispatcher riding with Hinton flagged down Jenkins and K-9 officer David Newton, both seven-year Metro veterans. In separate vehicles, they chased the stolen tribal police car. Nunez left the car after it crashed into a pole.

Mike Horn, handler and trainer for Metro's police dogs, said Nunez came at the officers firing with a gun in each hand.

Nunez then stole Jenkins' SUV. Buddy was sitting in the front seat.

"We tried to get him out of the truck," Jenkins said, but Buddy didn't come. "We heard the whole thing come down."

Nunez shot and killed Buddy and then turned a gun on himself, police said.

Jenkins described Buddy, a German shepherd born in Holland, as playful and gentle. "If his toy wasn't around, he'd find the nearest rock," he said.

Buddy's formal training was scheduled to begin this Saturday.

It was the second time Jenkins experienced the loss of a police dog partner. The first was Rudi, a Belgian malinois, who was killed in a traffic accident. Jenkins had just returned to duty with Buddy after spending 18 months in surgery and rehabilitation after the traffic accident that killed Rudi.

"It was great to be back with a new partner," Jenkins said.

Lt. Kent Bitsko, the police dog unit leader, said that Jenkins will have a new partner soon.

K-9 officers from Murray, Utah; Phoenix; West Covina, Calif.; Henderson; North Las Vegas; Boulder City; Nye County; and the S. Air Force and Metro's Search and Rescue bloodhound team attended the funeral services, which included a color guard, a 21-gun salute and taps.

Mike Horn, Metro's dog handler and trainer, said he has had several canine partners in his 18-year career.

"It doesn't get easier coming out here (for a funeral.) It gets harder for me," he said.

Celeste Smith and her daughter Sherry Simmons, both of Las Vegas, attended the service because they love animals.

"It's such a shame he got shot because he was muzzled," Smith said, recalling how she gave her dog, a collie-shepherd mix, to the military during World War II when she was 14 years old.

"I felt real good about it at the time, but I'd never do it again," she said.

For Las Vegas businessman Rob Clavier the service was a way to pay back a debt of gratitude to police officers.

"I was thinking about the firefighters in California and the soldiers in Iraq," Clavier said. "Police officers are really the soldiers of society."

Law enforcement officers save lives, take lives and even sacrifice their own lives, Clavier said.

Although Clavier did not know any of the officers, he said he respects what they do.

"They are one of the few people who still make house calls."

He said the only positive thing he could say about the funeral was that he was relieved that "it's a dog they were burying and not an officer."

But Pat McCann, who read a brief eulogy for Buddy, said Clavier was wrong. McCann said Buddy was "an officer in fur, a rookie in training."

Dogs "share in the fortune of human existence," McCann said in the eulogy. "For he is alive and well and runs with passion in his new life."

Jenkins said he is ready to begin training a new partner to honor Buddy's memory.

"It's my goal to get back out there and chase some more bad guys."