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Indiana police dog dies of heat stroke in squad car

DEKALB COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) — A DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office police dog died of an apparent heat stroke Thursday after his handler failed to remove him from the back of his squad car.

According to a release from DeKalb County Sheriff Don Lauer, the department’s school resource officer, Courtney Fuller, and her police dog named Mojo returned home from duty around 3 p.m. Thursday. Fuller, though, became distracted by a “situation” with his newborn child and never removed Mojo from the back of his county squad car.

Fuller noticed Mojo was not in his kennel around 7:15 p.m., Lauer said. He went out to the squad car and found Mojo dead of an apparent heat stroke.

Fuller immediately contacted his supervisor, who contact the Allen County Sheriff’s Department to conduct an investigation, according to Lauer. That investigation continued Friday.

Mojo was taken to Purdue University, which has a school of veterinary medicine, for a necropsy to officially confirm the cause of death.

Fuller, who served as the resource officer at Eastside Junior-Senior High School in Butler with Mojo, has been placed on suspension pending the result of the investigation, Lauer said.

“The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Department regrets this tragic mistake and mourns the loss of one of its members,” Lauer wrote in a release.

No other information was provided.

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