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Arizona Department of
Public Safety Officer Keith Duckett, and his 7 year old K-9 Partner,
Rico, completed 10 weeks of K-9 Training before being assigned to duty in the southern part of Arizona, patrolling the interstate
highway including drug interdiction duties. K-9 Rico had been assigned
to the K-9 Unit for 4 years.
On the evening of
August 20th, 2007, at approximately 19:10 hours, Officer Duckett
observed a Chevrolet pickup truck speeding excessively in the
vicinity of mile marker 287, on Interstate 10, just outside of Benson,
Arizona. Officer Duckett then turned on his emergency lights and
attempted to pull the speeding vehicle over. Instead of pulling over to
the side of the interstate, the speeding vehicle proceeded to accelerate
even more with Officer Duckett now close behind in a brief pursuit of
the fleeing vehicle that lasted approximately three miles, with the
suspect driver now leaving the interstate and crashing the vehicle on
the side of the roadway, who then exited the vehicle along with the
passenger and began to run away. Officer Duckett inspected the suspect
vehicle and noticed a large quantity of marijuana in the rear of the
truck, at which time both he and K-9 Rico engaged in a foot pursuit of the
fleeing suspects. Officer Duckett caught up to and apprehended one of
the suspects, at which time he then noticed that K-9 Rico was no longer in
sight. For some unknown reason, K-9 Rico became distracted and
instinctively returned to the DPS patrol vehicle. At some point after
this the second suspect was taken into custody, while K-9 Rico ran out
onto Interstate 10, where he was fatally injured by a tractor and
trailer. The two suspects were identified as illegal aliens from Mexico
and were booked into the Pima County
jail on suspicion of transportation of marijuana, possession of
marijuana and possession of marijuana for sale.
The amount of marijuana being transported by the suspects weighed in at 967 pounds.
During his
4 years with the DPS K-9 Unit, K-9 Rico has been responsible for the
seizure of nearly 68,000 pounds of marijuana, 5 pounds of heroin, 86
pounds of cocaine, 95 pounds of methamphetamine and close to One Million
Dollars in U.S. Currency, in addition to the apprehension of several
suspects.
K-9
Rico is remembered
for his courageousness and dedication to his K-9 Duties. He is missed by his handler and his family, whom he
resided with when he wasn't on duty, members of the Arizona Department
of Public Safety's K-9 Unit, and by
members of the Arizona Department of Public Safety.
"K-9 Rico" |
