A CHP K9 injured in the line of duty while helping police with a standoff situation in Beaumont is now back at work, following a toe amputation, rest and recovery.
According to California Highway Patrol Spokesman Officer Darren Meyer, "Ranger," was cleared to return to work as of Jan. 3-- from which point the canine has been "back in his patrol car and hard at work on the beat."
"A thorough evaluation of Ranger indicated he was fit to return to full duty," Meyer said Monday.
Ranger, a 2 1/2 year old Dutch Shepard, was shot in his right shoulder by an armed man who was fending off police responding to a domestic disturbance call on Morgan Avenue, south of Brookside, on Dec. 10, 2012.
Ranger's veternaian, Dr. Ryan Westbook of the Banning Veterinary Hospital, described for Patch in December how the bullet first passed through the dog's shoulder, and then hit the ground near his back paw, sending shrapnel all over.
"It was a copper jacketed hollow point, and so when those hit something solid they just shatter and go," the doctor described. "Like a grenade is made to come a part into a million pieces, those bullets are made to come into a million pieces, and so it just went everywhere."
Westbrook said that both back paws had bullet fragments throughout-- but those injuries weren't even discovered until after Ranger had been at the office for a little while-- when he was on the x-ray table, leaving blood behind near the paws.
At first, the doctor was assessing Ranger's gunshot wound in his chest, and cleaning up the blood from that injury.
The man shot by a SWAT team in the incident was identified as 38-year-old Chandler Cardwell, of Beaumont.
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- Banning Vet: K9 Ranger's Return to Work Looks Promising
