Midlands city where K-9 officer was killed receives new therapy dog
Almost four months after a K-9 officer in Cayce was shot and killed in the line of duty, the city’s police department has added a new dog to its lineup.
Cayce Police Chief Chris Cowen introduced the city’s newest officer, a Goldendoodle puppy named Hudson, at a press conference on Monday alongside Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott, whose department received its own new dog, Hudson’s sister Leona, at the same time.
Hudson is in training to be a therapy dog for use in comforting crime victims or de-escalating tense situations, a first-of-its-kind program in Cayce. Once trained up, Hudson will be deployed with his human handler, Officer Mandi Fournier, the school resource officer at Busbee Creative Arts Academy, although the department hopes to use him around the city.
Leona, 5 months old, will be deployed around Richland County with Investigator Summer Pearrow to a variety of responses and community events.
“Everybody loves dogs,” Lott said. “We’ve seen (other K-9s) go into children’s hospitals, houses were senior citizens live, sit with Alzheimer’s patients. It’s amazing how a dog can relate to someone who hasn’t spoken in years.”
The new dogs will be deployed less than a year after Cayce police officer Drew Barr, a K-9 handler himself, died in the line of duty. Barr was a six-year veteran of the Cayce Police Department when he was shot and killed responding to a domestic disturbance call in April. He served as a patrol officer, traffic safety officer and finally a K-9 officer, in addition to volunteering as an EMT and firefighter in Lexington County.
Lott said the presence of a therapy dog brought in from another agency at the time of Barr’s death showed local officers the usefulness of the animal.
“I think people here saw that the therapy dog helped,” Lott said. “That probably had a lot to do with” Hudson’s addition to Cayce’s police department.
Barr was active in raising the money for Cayce’s police foundation that helped pay for Hudson to join the force, including the Steel Paws fundraising event at Cayce’s Steel Hands brewery the same week Barr died. That fundraiser helped raise $800,000, Cowan said.
“A therapy dog’s demeanor, characteristics and attitudes are designed to help reduce the fear of law enforcement and fear in a crisis or traumatic event,” Cowan said. “Hudson will provide us with a new level of emotional support for our officers, our schools and our Cayce community.”
