Centralia K-9 cop gains accolades after big night

BY PETER GILL: A Centralia police dog nabbed two wanted men in two different cities in less than an hour Tuesday night, and police say it's not the first time he's done that.

Kayo's handler, Brian Warren, called the arrests their best work in three years together.

"My wife said this morning when she took him out of the kennel, he knew he had a good night because he was jacked up," said Warren, of the Centralia Police Department.

It started at a Centralia intersection where a wanted man ditched his car after getting in a chase. He was hiding beneath someone's deck.

Kayo found him in minutes.

"I gave him the warning: 'Police! If you don't show your hands, I'm gonna send the dog underneath to get you,'" Warren said. "At that time he started crawling away from me, like he was going back further underneath the house. So I dispatched the dog and a pretty good fight ensued."

As that man was arrested, about five miles away a suspected drunk driver ran into two parked cars. When he ran off, police called Kayo.

The German Shepherd almost immediately found the man in some nearby blackberry bushes.

The crash happened in front of Jon Parker's apartment. He calls Kayo a hero.
"I've got two kids," he said. "I'm glad they've got the dogs to get the bad guys."

Warren does not think either of the men would have been found without Kayo's help.

Both men were treated for bites at the hospital before being booked at the jail.