Less than a week after being shot and losing a leg while protecting three deputies, heroic\u00a0Florida\u00a0K-9 Ace was back on his feet Tuesday for an emotional return to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Ace, a 7-year-old German shepherd who has served with the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office since March 2020, was wounded as deputies attempted to arrest 27-year-old Angel Bowers.<\/p>\n
Authorities said Bowers allegedly fired at least four rounds at three deputies who were attempting to arrest him after he failed to appear in court.<\/p>\n
Bowers was killed by deputies at the scene.<\/p>\n
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Ace protected the three deputies from Bowers but was shot in his left front leg, shattering the bone and tearing an artery that caused massive blood loss.<\/p>\n
Ace\u2019s partner and handler, Deputy Natalie Oestreich, treated his wounds and carried him to safety, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n
Ace was rushed to Parkway Veterinary Emergency Clinic in Lakeland, where he was stabilized before a Tampa General Hospital Aeromed helicopter transported him to the Veterinary Medical Center at Lakewood Ranch.<\/p>\n
Veterinarians there performed a several-hour surgery to amputate his left front leg.<\/p>\n
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd with K-9 Ace days after the dog\u2019s front left leg was amputated. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
Angel Bowers allegedly fired at least four rounds at three deputies who were attempting to arrest him after he failed to appear in court. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
On Sunday, the sheriff\u2019s office posted video showing deputies arriving at the\u00a0veterinary medical center\u00a0to greet an energetic Ace as he prepared to return home.<\/p>\n
\u201cUpon waking from the anesthesia, Ace attempted to walk out of there,\u201d the sheriff\u2019s office wrote. \u201cHe has not been deterred since. In fact he outran the camera attempting to film his release this afternoon!\u201d<\/p>\n
Video shows Ace interacting with deputies before walking out of the medical center under his own power to thunderous applause while wearing a shirt that read \u201cride or die.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two days later, Ace made his first trip back to the sheriff\u2019s office since being shot in the line of duty.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook at Ace. He\u2019s happy; he\u2019s eating; he bit my finger,\u201d Judd said. \u201cWe are so proud of Natalie and Ace. They stood in the gap between good and evil and they saved three deputies\u2019 lives. That\u2019s why we\u2019re so proud of him. He did so good.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ace made his first trip back to the sheriff\u2019s office two days after being shot in the line of duty. Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office honored Ace in a social media post, writing, \u201cHis days of chasing bad guys may be over, but Ace will always be one of our heroes!\u201d Polk County Sheriff’s Office<\/p>\n
Judd said Oestreich will spend time with Ace as he continues to recover before she returns to work. Ace, however, will retire from\u00a0law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cChill out and enjoy your retirement Ace,\u201d Judd said.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office also honored Ace in a social media post, writing, \u201cHis days of chasing bad guys may be over, but Ace will always be one of our heroes!\u201d<\/p>\n
Polk Sheriff\u2019s Charities Inc. has established a K-9 fund to help support Ace\u2019s care.<\/p>\n
The sheriff\u2019s office said those interested in helping can donate directly to the fund through the organization\u2019s website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Less than a week after being shot and losing a leg while protecting three deputies, heroic\u00a0Florida\u00a0K-9 Ace was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":369254,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1550,28,30,29,132,22013,6889,4278],"class_list":["post-369253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-dogs","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-police","tag-police-shootings","tag-shootings","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369253","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=369253"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/369253\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/369254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=369253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=369253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=369253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}