PUYALLUP, Wash. — Puyallup police officer K9 Ice played an integral role in catching four suspects connected to a Tacoma shooting over the weekend.
Ice and his handler officer Nate Jendrick have been partners for the Puyallup Police Department for about a year, but have already had a big impact.
"They do things that we can't do. They're able to locate suspects that we can't find. They're able to get into areas that we can't. And they're able to allow us to do our job more safely," said Jendrick.
The duo has been involved in 20 catches, including their most recent case over this past weekend. Ice and Jendrick helped Tacoma police apprehend four suspects accused of shooting at a car in the 1600 block of South 47th Street on Sunday.
"Within a matter of minutes we were able to locate them, capture them and they were certainly surprised. They always are," said Jendrick.
Ice is part of the K9 Metro Unit in Pierce County.
"Currently, Tacoma has one dog, Puyallup has two dogs, Lakewood has two dogs and Pierce County has four dogs. There's not a lot of us and it's certainly a resource we would like to have more of," said Jendrick.
Despite their differences, Jendrick said there's no one he'd rather work with every day than his four-legged partner.
"He's everything you want in a partner, he's just got four legs and he can do things a lot better than I can in some instances, so it's great to have him and makes work a lot more fun, he lets us get a lot of great work done," said Jendrick.