Cobb Police K9 Dies Due To Heat-Related Injuries

ACWORTH, GA — After three years with the Cobb County Police Department, K9 officer Chase died Monday due to heat-related injuries at a police training.

Chase, a Belgian malinois, died while Cobb County Police officers were attending an active shooter training with Cobb firefighters around 2 p.m. at Allatoona High School. Chase was found unresponsive in his handler's patrol vehicle after the heat rose in the vehicle, police said.

Officers had been at the training since 11 a.m. and had been checking on their K9s during their 15-minute breaks between each 45-minute training session, police said.

Sometime after one of the checks, police said the air conditioning system malfunctioned in Chase's patrol vehicle. Other safety systems did not properly activate and the temperature quickly rose in the vehicle, police said.

Then, Chase was found unresponsive in his kennel and life-saving measures were performed by Cobb officers and firefighters, police said. The K9 was taken to a nearby emergency veterinarian clinic; however, police said the efforts were not enough to save him and he died of heat-related injuries.

"This is a horrible incident and our investigators are continuing to gather information regarding the vehicle system failures that led to this tragedy. K9 Chase is currently at Cobb County Animal Shelter and will be transported to the University of Georgia for a necropsy later today," police said in a statement.

According to the police department, Chase was born in Hungary on Aug. 13, 2018. He began his career with Cobb County Police in April 2020.

Chase was trained for narcotics detection, criminal apprehension, tracking, building searches and evidence recovery. Police said he seized thousands of dollars worth of illegal narcotics, with numerous arrests and apprehensions.

"Chase was named after fallen Locust Grove police officer Chase Maddox, who died in the line of duty on Feb. 9, 2018, just days before K9 Chase was born," police said in a separate statement. " ... K9 Chase was a beloved officer of the Cobb County Police Department and will forever be missed by us all."