{"id":367152,"date":"2026-08-10T01:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367152\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T01:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T01:30:15","slug":"k-9-ace-returns-home-after-being-shot-while-protecting-polk-county-deputies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/367152\/","title":{"rendered":"K-9 Ace returns home after being shot while protecting Polk County deputies"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office K-9 is back home after being critically injured in a shooting involving deputies last week.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ace, a 7-year-old German shepherd, was shot in the front left leg Thursday night while helping deputies. The injury broke his leg and damaged an artery, causing serious blood loss, according to the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ace was first taken to Parkway Veterinary Emergency Clinic in Lakeland, where staff stopped the bleeding and stabilized him. He was then flown by Tampa General Hospital\u2019s Aeromed helicopter to the Veterinary Medical Center at Lakewood Ranch in Bradenton.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Veterinarians performed surgery to amputate Ace\u2019s left front leg, the sheriff\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The sheriff\u2019s office shared today that Ace was released and returned home. Officials said he tried to walk shortly after waking from anesthesia and was eager to leave the veterinary center.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Ace\u2019s handler, Deputy Natalie Oestreich, provided care after the shooting and carried him to safety, the sheriff\u2019s office shared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The sheriff\u2019s office said the suspect who shot Ace was eliminated by Ace\u2019s handler and two other deputies at the scene.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Law enforcement agencies and first responders from across the region joined the sheriff\u2019s office in welcoming Ace home Sunday.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WWSB. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"POLK COUNTY, Fla. (WWSB) &#8211; A Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office K-9 is back home after being critically injured&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":367153,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[148864,7903,1827,28,30,29,7153],"class_list":["post-367152","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-ace","tag-county","tag-dog","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-polk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367152","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=367152"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/367152\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/367153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=367152"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=367152"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=367152"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}