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AST Asks Public Not To Donate to Fundraisers for Fallen K9 Officer

Alaska State Troopers

The Alaska State Troopers are asking the public not to donate to GoFundMe sites set up for one of their K9 officers who died while on duty. The dog was shot by a suspect on Sunday during a pursuit near Palmer.

Some of the GoFundMe pages are asking for donations that will go towards bulletproof and stab resistant canine vests. In their online dispatch, troopers say that they are grateful for the support, but insist that they are not asking for monetary donations. They also warn that some of the donation sites may be fraudulent.

The incident began as a traffic stop in Palmer.  Troopers were called in after driver Almando Abraca evaded police. The chase went on for several miles before Abraco pulled into a driveway at the Glenn Highway/Parks Highway interchange between Wasilla and Palmer, and ran into the woods with the K9 officer in pursuit.

Abarca shot the dog multiple times before two officers fired at Abarca and struck him once on the shoulder. The K9 officer died, and Abarca was taken to a hospital with non life-threatening injuries. This is the first K9 officer killed in the line of duty in Alaska.

Abarca was arrested on charges of two counts of assault in the third degree, harming a police dog in the first degree, eluding police, and was remanded on an outstanding $20,000 arrest warrant for burglary in the second degree.

There is anotherGoFundMe effort in Alaska right now that is not a scam. It was started for Don Nelson, a retired public broadcasting engineer, who is in critical condition at an Anchorage Hospital after he was struck on the head with a hammer during a home invasion. Considerable damage was done to his home in the Mountain View neighborhood during the break-in which left windows busted and the front door broken. That fund, started by Rob Gusky of Appleton, Wisconsin, is going to Alaska Public Media, Nelson's former employer. Alaska Public Media will either give it to Nelson, or to his family if he does not survive. 

Update: Alaska State Troopers say that the name of the deceased K9 officer was Helo. He was a six-year-old Belgian Malinois who had been working with the troopers since June 2013. He had assisted in over a hundred apprehensions and arrests, and was also trained to sniff out drugs including heroin, meth, and marijuana.