{"id":387408,"date":"2026-07-06T00:16:17","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:16:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/387408\/"},"modified":"2026-07-06T00:16:17","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T00:16:17","slug":"k-9-dies-after-being-hit-by-car-when-illegal-fireworks-erupted-in-california","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/387408\/","title":{"rendered":"K-9 dies after being hit by car when illegal fireworks erupted in California"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A beloved K-9 who had faithfully served four years with the Fresno County Sheriff was tragically killed after being spooked by illegal fireworks <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/07\/05\/us-news\/california-july-fourth-chaos-stores-looted-police-horses-charge-fires-erupt\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">on Fourth of July<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Santi, a five-year-old Belgian Malinois, was spending the night off with his assigned off-duty sheriff deputy, who was keeping him inside due to the explosions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.64160156;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39896173\" width=\"379\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/k-9-dies-hit-car-133416561.jpg\" alt=\"A K-9 police dog in a &quot;SHERIFF&quot; vest sits next to a sheriff deputy.\" class=\"wp-image-39896173\"  \/>Santi had served with the Fresno Sheriff\u2019s Department  Obtained by CA Post<\/p>\n<p>But tragedy struck when he was let outside to relieve himself. At the same time a firework exploded nearby terrifying the pooch who bolted over the fence.<\/p>\n<p>The deputy chased and called for Santi to come back but the continued bombardment kept the dog running.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:0.47558594;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39896187\" width=\"281\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/k-9-dies-hit-car-133416560.jpg\" alt=\"A K-9 police dog, wearing a &quot;SHERIFF&quot; collar and a tactical harness, sitting on grass.\" class=\"wp-image-39896187\"  \/> Obtained by CA Post<\/p>\n<p>Eventually the deputy found Santi badly injured on the roadway nearby. He\u2019d been struck by a car and was rushed to a pet hospital where he succumbed to his injuries.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Clovis Police interviewed several witnesses and an investigation is ongoing. Police have asked those with information to contact the Clovis police department, and warn of the dangers of illegal fireworks.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A beloved K-9 who had faithfully served four years with the Fresno County Sheriff was tragically killed after&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":387409,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,91344,4182,3586],"class_list":["post-387408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-fourth-of-july","tag-metro","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=387408"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/387408\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/387409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=387408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=387408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=387408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}