The getaway car - a small pickup truck - was parked across our street. My son Michael resided in the west side of the duplex then, and noticed the pickup as he backed out of his drive on his way to work, moments before the police teams began to arrive... Fairly early on into the morning, I saw this second man arrested. The third man had fled into a neighboring subdivision and was caught there. The house to the east of mine [which son bought last year] was then owned by a young couple who were expecting their first baby... Jim was also about to leave for his office; he thought the man he saw come around from my backyard into my patio was someone working for me - until he saw the guy had a gun; then the man leaped over the board fence and went under Jim's house... Jim and Michelle got under their dining table and called police... a short time later, police managed to get them out of their house and to safety a couple of blocks away. Police then tried to get me to leave too, but I said I would not go without my dog; they asked if there were doors to the other side of my house (this must have been before they were sure exactly how many would-be bank robbers there were) and when they found my apartment had no other entries besides the two doors they could see, they said I could stay if I would keep away from windows... Until mid-afternoon there were SWAT teams everywhere... leaning on my car, crouched beside my front door... I was in contact by cell phone with various people all the time and did not feel frightened (until later when the TV crews invaded!)A memorial ceremony will be held Thursday for a police dog fatally shot last week while tracking a bank robbery suspect in Lakeview. The ceremony for Zucco, a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois, will be at 10:30 a.m. at the New Orleans Police Department K-9 compound in City Park at Harrison Avenue and Marconi Boulevard. Zucco was killed Oct. 30 while tracking bank robbery suspect [....] Earlier in the day, police say, a man tried to force an employee of Hibernia Bank at 7033 Canal Blvd. to open a safe. The robber fled empty-handed and hid under a house at Memphis and Walker streets. Zucco picked up the scent and started to go under the house, and the man shot him, police said. Several hours later [the man] emerged from under the house and surrendered to police SWAT negotiators. He was held on a federal attempted bank robbery charge, and also will face a state charge of killing a police dog... Two other men, including one suspected of being a getaway driver, were arrested in the incident.
Zucco had a great memorial service: a regular military police funeral, with bagpipes and a chaplain and a benediction and a lot of New Orleans brass in attendance... I got to shake hands with our cool Superintendent of Police ... and Win's handsome doctor was there - he had been the vet on call when Zucco was brought in (the practice is only a few blocks from the compound, and I reside just a few blocks from it also) but he told me sadly there had been nothing he could do... It was another lovely, sunny Fall day, just as October 30th had been; as can be seen in the pictures, some folks brought their dogs... A couple weeks later I also attended an awards gathering to honor the police officers involved. Officer Hughes said Zucco had been like a member of his family and they will keep the urn with them... But all of us were comforted to hear arrangements had already been made to provide Officer Hughes with another K-9 partner: a Belgian Malinois pup just finishing training...
So here's to you, dear Zucco! Even though you were a police dog here, I can tell you will have fun at the Rainbow Bridge...
Must have been frightening!