CRESTVIEW — An award-winning Okaloosa County Sheriff's Office K9, renowned for his work in a 2014 Crestview case, is receiving surgery after breaking a leg on duty.
Deputies responded to a Destin home on Bambi Drive after its alarm was activated around 3:45 a.m. They interrupted a burglary in progress as one individual ran out of a side door and toward the waterline.
Inside on the first floor, they found Christmas gifts torn open and other areas in disarray.
Deputies set up a perimeter to try to locate the fleeing man. K9 “Dax” and his handler, Deputy Tim Patterson, arrived to assist.
While searching the residence, K9 Dax fell through a ceiling in an attic space on the third floor, landing on a concrete porch approximately 30 feet below.
He was taken to Bluewater Animal Hospital for treatment and then transported to a veterinarian in Pensacola for surgery on a broken leg.
Initial indications are that he will recover from his injuries.
An investigation into the burglary continues at this time.
K9 Dax and Deputy Patterson, along with K9 Diesel and Deputy Jonathan Duenas, earned the National Case of the Quarter from the U.S. Police Canine Association in 2014 for their work assisting the Crestview Police Department during a felony search warrant.
(See "Related content" for more on the Crestview case.)
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Okaloosa Sheriff's Office K9 injured on duty