FBI dog killed

The final act of the gunman who was suspected of killing four people and wounding two others in New York was to take the life of a dog.

A standoff that lasted 19 hours ended after police sent in Ape, a 2-year-old Czech German Shepherd, equipped with a camera, into the abandoned Herkimer bar where Kurt Myers had hidden after shooting six people in businesses nearby.

Myers, 64, shot Ape in the chest immediately after the dog entered the Glory Days bar. Officers returned fire, killing Myers before trying to save Ape. The performed CPR and rushed him to a veterinary office in an armored vehicle.

“We were trying to do everything we could to try to save its life,” Dr. Emily M. Green of Herkimer Veterinary Associates, where police took Ape after he was shot, told the New York Times.

Ape had been on active tactical duty with the FBI for just over two weeks when he was sent in to the middle of the standoff that ended his life.

He will be taken to FBI headquarters in Quantico, Va., where he will be buried and memorialized with his name on a wall dedicated to dogs killed in the line of duty. His name joined that of Freddy, a 2-year-old Belgian Malinois, who was killed in October 2009 while accompanying agents on a raid.

“Ape was doing what he was trained to do and made the ultimate sacrifice for his team,” said Special Agent Ann Todd, in a statement released by the FBI. “His actions were heroic and prevented his teammates from being seriously wounded or killed.”

The dog was sent into the bar after police unsuccessfully tried to contact Myers by cellphone. A camera-equipped robot was apparently ready, but police opted to send Ape in instead since the bar was cluttered with debris that would have obstructed the robot's movements.