Officer Nelson Enriquez with Jimmy (left) and with Hector.
(Photos: Hialeah Police Department)
MAY 28, 2015
DAVIE, FLORIDA
Two police dogs were found dead in an unmarked SUV outside a
Florida police officer’s home Wednesday, prompting an internal affairs
investigation, which is ongoing.
Hialeah police said K-9 Officer Nelson Enriquez apparently
left the dogs in the vehicle at the end of his midnight shift early
Wednesday.
The officer found the dogs around six hours later, police
said.
The dogs were a 7-year-old bloodhound named Jimmy and a
4-year-old Belgian Malinois named Hector.
Enriquez has been a Hialeah police officer for 13 years and
has handled K-9s for seven years, police said.
At a news conference Police Sgt. Carl Zogby said the deaths
were a terrible tragedy and the dogs were beloved.
Zogby said Enriquez, who is married with two children, was
also attached to the dogs, and was distraught.
Officers at the department wore black and navy striped
mourning bands across their badges Thursday.
What a terrible way to die. After these magnificent animals are worked to death, they cannot even die a pieceful death. This "officer" must pay dearly for this reckless act.
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As police dogs barked from their kennels at Hialeah police
headquarters Thursday, a sergeant wearing a mourning band over his badge
struggled to explain how two of the department's K-9 partners died in their
handler's SUV while he was inside his Davie home.
The deceased K-9s — Jimmy, 7, a bloodhound who searched for
missing children and adults, and Hector, 4, a Belgian Malinois that chased and
caught suspects — were assigned to Hialeah Police Officer Nelson Enriquez.
Enriquez had worked a night shift that began at 11 p.m.
Tuesday and ended about 7 a.m. Wednesday, when he continued working a few hours
more to assist in the search for a missing older man.
"From what I have learned is that he entered his home
sometime mid-to-late morning [Wednesday], and left the dogs in the
vehicle," Hialeah Police Sgt. Carl Zogby said.
Enriquez is a veteran cop "in good standing" who
has worked 13 years for the department and was a K-9 officer for the past seven
years, Zogby said.
At about 5 p.m., he discovered his K-9 partners were dead
inside his Ford Explorer SUV. They may have been trapped for six hours.
"You can imagine his reaction," Zogby said.
"The officer is extremely distraught. He has lost two beloved members of
his family."
Necropsies will determine how the dogs died, and the cause
will probably be related to being inside a very hot car, police said.
Enriquez is married with two young children who were also
very attached to the dogs that lived both inside the house, and if weather
permitted, in outdoor kennels in the officer's yard, Zogby said.
The officer's SUV has a "fail-safe safety
mechanism" that will not let the dog suffer heat exhaustion in the car,
but there is a catch: the vehicle has to be running for the safety functions to
work, Zogby said.
The system measures the internal temperature of the car and
if it rises to an unsafe level, the windows will lower, alarms will go off and
a fan will run.
"Unfortunately these systems are made for a vehicle
that is running for a K-9 officer that is on duty," Zogby said. "We
know of nothing that could have forewarned the officer of this situation once
the vehicle is turned off. That is our take on it so far."
Enriquez worked with the caramel-colored bloodhound for six
years and the tan Malinois that had a black mask during the year it was with
the department.
"Davie Police are the lead investigating agency, and
with the Broward State Attorney's Office will make the final determination
whether this was an accident or if this was any sort of abuse or negligence,"
Zogby said.
He said the department wants to know "exactly what
happened here. We will deal with the outcome of it and we will deal with how to
avoid this ever happening again."
Hialeah police are also conducting an internal affairs
investigation.
Hialeah police are supporting Enriquez "because we know
that he is suffering more than anyone," Zogby said. "This is a
terrible tragedy. Every member of the Hialeah Police Department was beyond fond
of Jimmy the bloodhound and of Hector. We were in love with those dogs."
Davie police were called to Enriquez's home in west Davie at
about 6:50 p.m., Davie Police Sgt. Pablo Castaneda said.
"We're investigating this just like any other animal
crime," Castaneda said.
Per his agency's protocol, Enriquez was suspended with pay
pending the outcome of the investigations.
The animals' bodies were stored at the Hollywood Animal
Hospital Wednesday night. On Thursday afternoon, they were driven to
Gainesville to the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine,
which will perform necropsies.
A university spokeswoman said she did not know when the
exams will happen and that final results may take several weeks to obtain,
depending on what is found and the testing that is required.
The dogs were escorted from the Hollywood Animal Hospital by
Hialeah motorcycle officers and K-9 officers during the five-hour trip north.
Hialeah police command staff, including Chief Sergio Velazquez, were present
for their departure.
The dogs' remains were inside blue body bags that were
placed in the covered bed of a silver Ford F-15 pickup that was driven by Davie
police officers.
Asked whether Enriquez had undergone a sobriety test, Zogby
said, "Not that I'm aware of, but all options are open to internal affairs
investigators.
"We will wait for the complete outcome of the
investigation to see if there is any discipline applicable in this case,
perhaps any internal policy violations or anything of that sort," Zogby
said. "This is definitely an unfortunate incident that should not have
happened."
Enriquez was praised as handler of two K-9s with different
skill sets that made them a versatile trio: they could respond to calls to find
vanished children or hunt for suspects on the run.
"It's not common to have two dogs, and he demonstrated
his ability and competence," Zogby said. "We'd never assign another
dog to a K-9 officer unless he was extremely qualified. He is an
extraordinarily gifted handler, he's proven himself and he earned the other
dog. Plus it made him a more complete K-9 officer." This is typical BS language. This guy is a clown for causing the death of these work dogs.
With Enriquez's input, the department plans to erect a
memorial to the animals to commemorate their service to the city, which has had
a K-9 unit for six decades and has nine dogs remaining on the force.
Jimmy was the sole bloodhound. He was donated to the agency
by the Jimmy Ryce Center and was involved in perhaps "hundreds of
missions," Zogby said.
He was loved by Hialeah school kids who participated in mock
drills to find missing children, the sergeant said.
Jimmy Ryce was 9 when he was abducted, raped and murdered in
1995 while walking from his school bus to his southwest Miami-Dade home.
His parents, Don and Claudine Ryce, created the Center to provide
free bloodhounds to police departments.
Don Ryce released a statement Thursday that said he was
"deeply saddened to learn of the tragic death of two remarkable police
dogs" and that he hoped, with the help of the public, that the Center
could raise funds to replace the dogs.
Police use bloodhounds for their ability to track scents.
The Ryces have said that if a bloodhound was used in their son's case, the boy
may have been recovered while he was still alive.
Jimmy Ryce's killer, farmhand Juan Carlos Chavez, was at
Florida State Prison when he was executed by lethal injection on Feb. 12, 2014.