(Stillwater, Okla.) – The way Sheriff’s Investigator Rockford Brown sees it, “Rudy is the hero of this story.”
Rudy, the K9 officer with the long tongue, took down and bit a fleeing suspect, according to Brown’s affidavit.
It all began last week when off-duty Perkins Police Officer George Hannon told Brown that a man wanted by authorities was walking in the area of the Stillwater Mill, the affidavit said.
When the investigator contacted him, “I told the suspect I believed him to be Christopher Taylor and he had a warrant. Taylor told me he was not that person,” Brown wrote in his affidavit.
After the suspect became agitated, “I then grabbed Taylor by his shirt collar and pushed him against my Tahoe, and while doing so, I told Taylor I had a K9 in the vehicle and he would be bit by him if he attempted to run from me,” Brown wrote in his affidavit.
During an ensuing struggle, “I told him to put his hands behind his back twice, and Taylor continued to resist,” Brown wrote in the affidavit.
“I grabbed Taylor around the shoulders and neck with my left arm while stepping backwards in an attempt to take him to the ground,” but the suspect spun toward him and pushed the investigator’s arm over his head causing him to lose footing and hit the ground, Brown alleged in his affidavit.
When the suspect ran toward the railroad tracks, “I released my K9, Rudy, and gave Taylor a command to stop or he would get bit.
“Taylor continued his flight and was apprehended by Rudy, biting him on the back of his leg and jeans,” Brown wrote in his affidavit.
After Taylor was taken to the Payne County Jail, he was checked by medical staff, Brown said.
Thanks to Rudy, the investigator received only an abrasion to his left elbow from hitting the pavement, the affidavit said.
While Rudy sits on his laurels, the suspect, who was wanted for failing to appear in court on a drug paraphernalia charge, remains in jail on that count — as well as a new charge of assault and battery on the investigator on Oct. 23 while on probation for methamphetamine possession in 2016.
If convicted of his new felony, Taylor, 32, of Stillwater, could be incarcerated for two years to life in prison, court records show.
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