A very special officer with the Huntington Police Department passed away Monday afternoon.
K-9 Rio collapsed during training yesterday. All efforts were made to resuscitate Rio. The four-legged officer started working for Huntington Police in the fall of 2009.
Over the course of his career with the department, Rio was responsible for seizing 1,412 grams of cocaine, 400 grams of heroin, 1,942 grams of marijuana and 1,884 units of opiates. Rio also completed 50 suspect tracks, resulting in 17 suspect apprehensions, according to a news release from the police department.
Rio was handled by Officer Ronnie Lusk.
According to the news release, Chief W.H. Holbrook said Rio was a huge part of the drug eradication efforts and the department will begin the process of replacing Rio. The K-9 unit has six other dogs working currently.
Source- WOWK