LASD honors K9 for his bravery after being shot by violent suspect in Compton
K9 Kjeld "Kid" (LASD)
LOS ANGELES - The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department honored a K9 for his bravery and courage in apprehending a violent suspect.
On April 17, Deputy Steve Williams with his K9 dog Kjeld "Kid" and other deputies responded to assist Compton Sheriff’s Station deputies in searching for an armed suspect who threatened a community member with a handgun.
While searching a commercial yard, K9 Kjeld located the suspect hiding underneath a tarp. At that moment, the suspect fired one shot — hitting the K9 in the right shoulder. Luckily, the dog was wearing a bulletproof vest. K9 Kjeld suffered minor injuries and was taken to an animal hospital where he received six stitches for his laceration.
After announcements were made for the suspect to surrender, he eventually complied and was taken into custody.
K9 handler Deputy Stephen Williams and K9 Kjeld "Kid" (LASD)
During a press conference Monday morning, Sheriff Robert Luna thanked his deputies, K9 handler Williams and K9 Kjeld for their bravery and hard work.
"This incident that I'm describing to you saved in my opinion, the suspect’s life and it saved these deputies who are around us. If you can picture for a second them searching for an armed suspect who committed this violent crime upon one of our community members and if the dog was not available to us and one of them has to either lift this tarp that the suspect was concealing himself under, and he’s armed and dangerous, these gentlemen are armed and highly trained and in my opinion we avoided a deputy-involved shooting that night because of our K9 dog," Luna said.
K9 Kjeld was in good spirits, active and playful during the press conference.
Luna said the K9 unit is necessary and valuable in law enforcement.
K9 Kjeld "Kid" during press conference
"Our dog, our K9, part of our family, was actually wearing a protective vest that night. And that vest had been donated to us by K9s of Valor. Their support saved our K9’s life," Luna added.
K9 Kjeld is a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois who has been working with the K9 Service Detail since January 2023. Once his stitches are removed, he’ll return to work.