Police dog Robbie intervened when a migrant waving an ax in Schiedam threatened the public. The animal was hacked to death while protecting his handler.
“This hero made the highest sacrifice during a detention in Schiedam,” the police reported in the post. On the photo the injured police dog with bandage around his neck and hind is shown. He was attacked by the migrant and died shortly after the incident of his injuries.
Robbie was a part of an arrest team and the blow to his human friends have been hard, a statement said. The dog started working with his dog handler in January this year. “Robbie was exceptional, because he was very social for an attack dog.”
Robbie has been cremated and his ashes were scattered over the terrain where he received his training.
“Partly because he performed his task excellently, members of the arrest team were able to overpower the man. The investigation of the National Criminal Investigation Department is still ongoing, which should show what exactly happened,” law enforcement officials said.
The police in Schiedam thanked the public on Facebook for their sympathy. “Of course we all wanted everyone (including dog Robbie) to come home safely. Unfortunately, this has not been the case.”
Deze held heeft gisteren het hoogste offer gebracht tijdens een aanhouding in Schiedam.#thinblueline #rustzacht #rip #bedanktvooralles pic.twitter.com/UdcWJPlsIN
— Politie Rotterdam eo (@Politie_Rdam) May 31, 2018
A migrant was reported while standing on his balcony with an ax, waving it in a threatening manner and screaming “Allahu Akbar”. Despite repeated attempts, the Islamist would not calm down.
Agents together with the police dog then broke into the home of the 26-year-old Syrian, who attacked the police and the dog. An agent wrotes on his Instagram account: “The dog was badly injured in protecting his colleagues, and later the sad news came that these serious injuries had been fatal.”
The police do not want to make any statements about the further developments after the migrant was shot in the confrontation, because the investigation is still ongoing.
Van den Tempelstraat Schiedam : De politie heeft hier zojuist een man neergeschoten die op straat liep te zwaaien met een bijl, tijdens de aanhouding is ook een hond van het DSI gewond geraakt. pic.twitter.com/PjAenj8B5g
— MediaTV (@mediatvnl) May 30, 2018
It is clear, however, that the suspect is known to the police as well as several aid organisations. “However, this is an escalation that we did not see coming. We are going to investigate the entire situation in the near future”, the police spokesperson told Hart van Nederland.
According to the Schiedam mayor Cor Lamers, the migrant was probably suffering from psychosis. “It is serious that this happened in a residential area. Although the situation took place in a home, bystanders did see what was happening. I can imagine that it was frightening,” he added.
The deadly confrontation in Tempel Street happened on 30 May, only days after a jihadist in Belgium attacked and killed two female police officers and fatally shot a passer-by.
The alleged terrorist, on the day of his release from prison, executed two female police officers with their own guns and shot dead a trainee teacher before he was killed in a shootout after taking two women hostage at a school in the Belgian city of Liege.
The terrorist, a well-known drug dealer wearing black, shouted “Allahu Akbar” on his bloody rampage which left another four officers wounded.
Despite a prison service assessment warning that he was “ultra-violent” and on a terror watchlist over suspicions he had become radicalised in 2017, he had been released.
“It is clear that the assassin’s objective was to attack the police,” Christian Beaupere, head of the Liege police force, told the media.
The terrorist was “already on the run” after committing another murder the previous night in the town of On, in southern Belgium, a source told AFP. Prosecutors however would not confirm the links, citing an ongoing investigation.