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Wednesday, March 26, 2003
Everett police dog killed in action
EVERETT -- Ikon was a tug-of-war nut who loved to swim and was so enthusiastic about tracking down criminals that fellow police officers called him "psycho dog."
Late Monday night, in what would be his last chase, the 8-year-old German shepherd followed a fleeing suspect wanted on a felony narcotics warrant across Interstate 5.
The member of the Everett Police Department's K-9 unit had spent half an hour tracking a man who took off running during a traffic stop. His handler unhooked the dog from a tracking line when they reached an area that was choked with blackberry brambles.
Shortly afterward, Officer Chip Higinbottham lost sight of his K-9 partner for a few moments. He heard a car horn blare on the freeway and got an awful feeling in his stomach.
Ikon, who was wearing a reflective police vest, was hit by a car whose driver didn't stop. He died later that night.
But the dog, with 80 successful captures to his credit, got a piece of the suspect first. Officers found the 33-year-old Everett man hiding in a closet at his home yesterday with a bite taken out of his shoulder.
"He was doing his job when he was killed. That's all he knew," said Higinbottham, who spent every day of the last five years with Ikon. "He was so upbeat, so ready to go get the bad guys."
But when the hard-charging tracker went into elementary schools or Cub Scout meetings, that switch shut off. He would let the children mob him and pull his ears without flinching, his partner said.
"It's devastating for everyone," said Higinbottham, who broke up talking about going to his patrol car and looking at the empty back seat yesterday morning.
Police dogs do dangerous work. In 2001, a Pierce County sheriff's K-9 unit member was struck and killed by a vehicle while chasing a suspect across a street, and a Bremerton police dog was fatally shot by a fleeing suspect. The year before, Shierkhan, a 4-year-old Seattle police dog, was hit by a car while tracking a pair of hijackers.
P-I reporter Jennifer Langston can be reached at 425-252-5235 or jenniferlangston@seattlepi.com
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