Police dog shot by suspect during domestic dispute - Fort Lauderdale, FL

Friday, Jul 18, 2008

County: Broward

Charges: Felony CTA
Disposition: Convicted

Defendant/Suspect: Delvin Lewis

Case Updates: 1 update(s) available

The Broward Sheriff's Office is mourning the loss of a K-9 dog that it says was fatally shot by a suspect. Officers were trailing a man who fled after firing shots during a domestic dispute with his girlfriend north of Fort Lauderdale early today. The woman was not hurt.

Officers followed the suspect -- identified as 27-year-old Delvin Lewis -- to Miami Beach. Authorities say Lewis then opened fire near a hospital, killing the canine. Police returned fire, and Lewis was taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries.

Lewis has been charged with aggravated assault with a motor vehicle on a law enforcement officer; aggravated fleeing and eluding; resisting an officer with violence; and principal in the death of a police dog, which is a felony.

Case Updates

A man who was the center of a two-county police chase that ended when a police dog was shot to death admitted his guilt in court Friday morning. Delvin Lewis pleaded guilty to eluding police and driving with a suspended license. Prosecutors dropped burglary and battery charges which stemmed from a fight he had with his girlfriend. Lewis was sentenced to five years of probation with an ankle monitor and treatment for post traumatic stress disorder. Last July, Lewis led police on a chase from Broward County into Miami-Dade that ended in the parking lot of Mt. Sinai Hospital on Miami Beach. According to a police report, Lewis made ''a reaching motion toward the floorboard, as if attempting to retrieve a handgun,'' and that's when BSO deputies and a Miami-Dade police officer opened fire. Oozi, a BSO police dog, had already been let loose to help apprehend Lewis but entered the line of fire and was fatally wounded. Lewis was also shot three times by officers who thought he was reaching for a gun while fighting off the police dog. Oozi was a 7 year old Belgian Malinois assigned to BSO's Cooper City District. He had been trained in narcotics and helped with hundreds of arrests throughout his career.

Source: CBS 4 - March 6, 2009 Update posted on Mar 8, 2009 - 11:17AM

References

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