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Died – 3/20/23
Handler – Sergeant Pat le Grange
Hero police dog dies protecting his handler
From not being able to pass one of its police dog training examinations, to saving the life of its handler in a real life or death situation. SAPS dog Deacon is hailed a hero after protecting his handler, while on duty.On Monday, March 20, members of SAPS Humansdorp K9 unit, Sergeant Pat le Grange and a partner with patrol dog, Deacon, responded to a complaint of a housebreaking in the St Francis industrial area.On arrival at the scene, security members pointed out where the suspect had disappeared into a dense bush area. As the bush was too dense for the officers to access, Le Grange utilized Deacon to follow a track and crawl into this area.According to Le Grange, Deacon was on a long leash and he lost visual of the dog when, suddenly, he heard screaming from the area the dog had been searching. Le Grange responded by rushing to the site and, in doing so, collided with the fleeing suspect.The knife-wielding suspect attempted to stab Le Grange who managed to evade the knife, while getting hold of his own weapon, in order to secure the suspect. During this scuffle Deacon, who had already been critically wounded at this time, charged to his handler’s rescue attacking the suspect, and keeping him pinned to the ground while the officers apprehended him.“If Deacon hadn’t come along when he did, I could have been the one who was seriously injured,” said Le Grange.Once the suspect had been secured it became apparent that Deacon was severely wounded, with head and neck stab wounds. According to Le Grange, the injuries must have been sustained during Deacon’s first encounter with the suspect, deep in the bush.Le Grange thanks the community members who did their best to assist in getting Deacon to a veterinarian as soon as possible, and for their support during and since the incident.Unfortunately, Deacon succumbed to heart failure, caused by severe blood loss from his injuries, while receiving treatment at a veterinarian in St Francis.“Deacon was a difficult dog to train, in fact, he did not pass his ‘mid-term’ examination as a police dog and only really picked up the police work during his last few weeks of training,” said Le Grange, who had been working with, and training dogs in the SAPS since 2008.“It just goes to show that it’s not always the dogs that get it right the first time that are the best. Deacon was the best dog I have ever worked with in real-life situations. Sometimes dogs do well during training but fail to execute their duties well in real-life.“Deacon was different. He was stubborn in the beginning, but undoubtedly the only dog I would have wanted by my side when my life was in danger.“He was an incredible working dog, who has apprehended four suspects during the seven short months he had been on the job. To put it into perspective, my first dog was with me for six years and apprehended eight suspects during that time. Deacon was very special and will be sorely missed.”
