SANDY SPRINGS, Ga. — For the second time in a month, a Sandy Springs police dog is recovering from injuries suffered during a suspect apprehension.
K-9 Rock and his handler ,Officer Mike Dewald, were called early Tuesday morning to a home off Riverside Drive after a homeowner found a naked man sleeping on a lounge chair by her pool.
The homeowner, who asked Channel 2’s Mike Petchenik not to identify her, said her husband awakened 42-year-old Alfred Matthews and asked him why he was there.
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“The man wondered if he had a job for him, and my husband said, ‘No, but I’m probably going to call the police,’” she said.
The woman said Matthews picked up a metal bar and ran into the woods.
DeWald told Petchenik he deployed Rock, and within minutes the 8½-year department veteran tracked his scent.
“We use our K-9s as first line defense option in violent encounters,” he said. “(We) located the male in question squatting down behind a tree. In his hands, he had a 3-foot piece of metal bar he was holding in a baseball grip on either side.”
DeWald said after Matthews refused to surrender, Rock jumped on him and Matthews stabbed the dog in the shoulder with the metal bar.
“(The injury forced) him to receive about nine stitches,” he said. “(It) cut through the skin and into the muscle.”
But DeWald said Rock continued with the takedown until DeWald and another officer could take Matthews into custody.
“He has never once let me down. He always comes through, does what he’s trained to do,” said DeWald.
The attack came just four weeks after another suspect hit Rock in the head during a takedown.
“I had just taken the stitches out of his head on Thursday to take him back to get nine more stitches,” said DeWald. “Rock once again proved himself. K-9 Rock is tried and true.”
The homeowner said the situation was frightening, but she was glad that police responded so quickly.
“I think the dog saved the day,” she said.
Matthews is in the Fulton County jail facing several charges including aggravated assault on a police dog.
Cox Media Group
