K-9 who passed from cancerous tumor assisted over 1K deployments with multiple police departments

A metro police department is without one of its own. Plymouth K-9 officer "Knight" passed away this week, after more than a decade of helping the community.

"Throughout Knight’s time with us, he was deployed over 1,000 times in Plymouth and surrounding communities," said Plymouth Police Capt. Jeff Swiatkiewicz. "Our dogs do get a lot of work in and around our own community, and frankly they’re an invaluable resource."

Since 2009, Knight was trained on narcotics detection, tracking, and apprehension. He assisted many different departments in the surrounding areas until he was rushed to the vet earlier this week.

"I was notified that Knight was in, at the emergency vet, and just wasn’t feeling well, and appeared that his health was rapidly deteriorating," said Swiatkiewicz.

Plymouth K-9 dies unexpectedly

It took a lot of lab tests, but eventually, it was determined that Knight had a cancerous tumor on his spleen, and wasn’t going to make it.

Knight spent his dog-years helping others, and of a thousand calls, Swiatkiewicz recalls a big one where Knight saved the day.

"Minnetonka, I should say had a sexual assault suspect, who had fled the scene of an incident, and Knight went on a significant track and he was called to the city of Minnetonka to track," said Swiatkiewicz.

Knight found the man and police arrested him. He was later convicted.

Knight brought his "shining armor" to serve Minnesota until his last breath and is remembered for his acts of service, especially in such a difficult year.

"Based on the numbers of deployments, the number of requests that Knight was involved in, it says a lot about the quality of work that both Knight and his handler were involved in," said Swiatkiewicz.