Kalamazoo K-9 handler Max Houtman comforts K-9 sledge in the back of a patrol vehicle as the dog is rushed to emergency veterinary care.Kalamazoo PD
On Tuesday Feb. 6 around 7:30 p.m. officers of the Kalamazoo (Michigan) Police Department were called to an incident where a man was threatening to stab people. Before the incident was over a department K-9 was stabbed in the throat.
Arriving at the scene officers found a man on the porch of a home who was armed with a box cutter and tried to get him to drop the weapon. He reportedly threatened to kill the officers and advanced on them, according to police.
K-9 handler Max Houtman and his K-9 partner Sledge arrived on the scene. Police say the man was again ordered to drop the knife.
When the man continued to hold the box cutter, K-9 Sledge was deployed.
K-9 Sledge successfully apprehended the suspect, according to police. But he was stabbed multiple times in the throat during the confrontation.
Sledge, a 4-year-old Dutch shepherd, was rushed to an emergency veterinary hospital by his handler Houtman and another officer who drove. He was seriously bleeding as his handler applied pressure and tried to comfort him in the back of the patrol vehicle.
That quick evacuation to veterinary care likely saved the dog’s life. “Despite being stabbed in the jugular vein and sustaining a 40% loss of blood, K-9 Sledge will survive his injuries and has been discharged from the hospital. Sledge was able to walk out of the hospital on his own four legs and returned home with his handler,” the Kalamazoo PD reports.
The suspect was injured when K-9 Sledge took him down. He was treated for lacerations to his arm and taken to jail, police say.
