'Comply Or Be Bitten' Oak Creek K9, Handler Honored For Catch

OAK CREEK, WI — An Oak Creek police officer and her K9 partner were honored with the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Canine Handler Association's 2019 police track of the year. The track and arrest present a harrowing tale in which a wanted man ran from police following a traffic stop, and into a crowded theater on a busy summer night.

Oak Creek Police Officer Dawn Hanizeski has been an officer at the Oak Creek Police Department for 12-and-a-half years, and has been the sole handler for K9 officer Nox since he joined the force in March 2013.

Everything started on a busy Thursday night in Aug. 2018. An Oak Creek police officer attempted to pull over a vehicle. Behind the wheel was a man who was wanted for a parole violation, and an outstanding arrest warrant for robbery. He did not stop. As police chased his vehicle, the wanted man jumped out of the moving vehicle and left his passenger behind. It was just after 10 p.m.

With police right behind, the man ran east from the vehicle along the interstate near the W. Rawson Ave. exit ramp.

"K9 Nox and I arrived on scene to attempt to track the offender," Hanizeski said. It wasn't too much later, a person came up to them saying the man ran through the South Shore Cinema parking lot. It was a busy night at the movies, with crowds of people moving from theater to theater and to and from the parking lot.

Hanizeski said she had a shoe from the suspect. Nox picked up a scent after sniffing the shoe and went south just as the witness had told officers.

"Nox got to the end of the parking lot where the asphalt meets the wood line and made a hard turn east through the parking lot," she said. "I trusted K9 Nox and he continued tracking, pulling hard eastbound through the parking lot."

Once officers got to the east end of the building, Nox turned north and headed straight for the concrete stairs leading up to the movie theaer exit doors. Nox tracked to the east doors to the movie theater and then suddenly stopped.

Police learned information that quickly complicated their pursuit: the man they were chasing ran into the theater.

Officers started to shift positions. Hanizeski cast K9 Nox out by the main doors to see if he would pick up another suspect track away from the business. Nox pulled Hanizeski back to the east doors and stared into theater.

"I began to try and coordinate going into the theater when I observed a large amount of people exiting one of the theaters on the east end," she told Patch. "I saw a subject matching the offender description and started to bang on the doors to get someone to let us inside."

Police said the wanted man continued walking away down the hall out of sight. Once someone let Hanizeski and her K9 partner in, Nox picked up the man's track on the carpet and pulled down the hall and then onto tile out through the main doors.

Nox found the man standing just outside the main doors and began to back up away from officers.

"Nox began to bark at him and he was warned to comply or be bitten," she said. "This track was especially impressive because the entire track consisted of hard surfaces with very heavy foot traffic."