The Thurston County Sheriff’s Office has officially retired K9 Daro.
K9 Daro, a German Shephard/Belgian Malinois mix, was born in June 2013, making him around 7 1/2 years old. He started patrolling the streets of Thurston County with Deputy Tyson Shenkel in August 2014.
Since then, K9 Daro has racked up hundreds of deployments and captures, according to the Thurston County Sheriff K9 Instagram page. His last day on patrol came right at the end of 2020.
In his last week on patrol, Deputy Shenkel and K9 Daro assisted the Olympia Police Department in locating an armed robber after he fled on foot in the South Capitol neighborhood. They also located a Domestic Violence Assault suspect in the Rainier area, tracking through farm fields past cattle and other livestock.
The Sheriff’s Office has three other K9 units – K9 Jaxx, K9 Arlo, and K9 Dexter. It’s unclear if and when the Sheriff’s Office will seek to fill the fourth K9 spot.
Olympia Police and Tumwater Police Departments have one K9 unit each – K9 Kaiser and K9 James, respectively. Our agencies in Thurston County regularly dispatch their K9 units to assist each other.
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