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Gwinnett K-9 officer continues to recover from gunshot wounds
Police said the 17-year-old shot the K-9 officer twice. Cpl. Carlyle rushed Kai to the veterinary hospital, where he remained for about three weeks. A short time after he was released, Kai's care team made the difficult decision to amputate his injured leg.
GWINNETT COUNTY, Ga. - More than a month and a half after he was shot in the line of duty, Gwinnett County Police K-9 Kai is still recovering from his injuries.
Kai and his human partner, Cpl. Aaron Carlyle, responded to a domestic violence scene May 23 to help locate an armed suspect who had escaped into the woods.
"When Kai located the suspect, he was met with gunfire," explained Cpl. Carlyle.
Police said the 17-year-old shot the K-9 officer twice. Cpl. Carlyle rushed Kai to the veterinary hospital, where he remained for about three weeks. A short time after he was released, Kai's care team made the difficult decision to amputate his injured leg.
"He wants to run and carry on. He hasn't even skipped a beat," said Cpl. Carlyle. "It's like he doesn't even know that it's missing."
Kai and his human partner, Cpl. Aaron Carlyle. Kai had to have one of his legs amputated following the shooting (FOX 5 Atlanta).
Cpl. Carlyle said the outpouring of support for him and Kai has been amazing.
"It's great to see. I mean, I've gotten letters from like, thank you cards, from California, New Jersey--all over the country," Cpl. Carlyle shared.
Kai is scheduled to return to the vet to remove his stitches and check on his progress July 18. While his future on the force is not clear, Carlyle said Kai's heroism is.
Kai and his human partner, Cpl. Aaron Carlyle (FOX 5 Atlanta).
"I've been doing this 10 years and we train the dogs to do this job, and we all have days when we don't want to go to work, but they have no days like that," said Cpl. Carlyle. "They want to go and they do this because they want to please us, and it's not just us, the handlers, they're pleasing their community and doing the job that we train them to do to keep our community safe and to keep other officers safe, and they're the first to go in and sometimes they're the last to come out. That night he was just that--first to go in and last to come out, even after the suspect and that's what these dogs do."