A Pennsylvania police department will honor a K-9 officer this week after the dog “died honorably” while assisting in a burglary search on Sunday.
Titan, who had served with the Johnstown Police Department near Pittsburgh since 2014, is the second police dog to die in the line of duty in the last week. A Tennessee K-9 Officer named Sjaak was shot three times last week and died during surgery the next day.
Officer Brian Stevens and Titan were called early Sunday to help Johnstown officers search for suspects of a burglary at the old Goodwill warehouse in the Woodvale neighborhood. During the search, Titan fell through an unsecured open elevator shaft from the fourth floor of a five-story building, police said.
“K9 Officer Titan died honorably in the line of duty,” interim Police Chief Chad A. Miller said in a statement.
The department’s K-9 Unit changed its Facebook profile picture to a photo of the dog.
Local authorities on Monday plan to escort Titan from the police department to the Hindman Funeral Home, according to a Facebook post.
Following Sjaak’s death in Tennessee, the La Vergne Police Department celebrated the dog’s life Thursday at Faithful Friends Pet Memorial Services in Nashville with full honors.
Contributing: Brinley Hineman, Murfreesboro Daily News Journal
