Reward up to $6,000 for information about police dog killing

By Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The Atlanta Humane Society added $5,000 to the reward fund for information that leads to the arrest of the person who  shot and killed a Griffin Police Department German Shepherd and then dumped the dog in a ditch beside a Lamar County Road.

The dog’s handler, Griffin police Cpl. Chad Moxon, and his family had already put up $1,000  so the reward now stands at $6,000 with the Humane Society's offering.

After getting home from the  firing range on Monday, Moxon discovered Jimi and his dog Yeager  missing from their kennel at his house on a dirt road in Lamar County.

"The gate looked like it had been tampered with, and there were tire tracks leading up to the gate,  going across my back yard," Moxon said Friday. "I can't  say for 100 percent that someone came in there and took the dogs, but I do believe that's what happened. "

Moxon said he searched all Monday night and most of Tuesday night for the German Shepherds. He handed out about 300 flyers and followed up on several false alarms from people who thought they had  spotted them.

Moxon got a call Wednesday morning that Jimi may have been found in a  ditch on Rock Quarry Road near the Monroe County line. Moxon said there was little blood at the scene so he suspects the 3-year-old dog was dumped there after he was shot in the side. The vet found buckshot in the wound.

"I just sat down in the ditch for the next 30 minutes. I didn’t have the energy to get him out," Moxon said.

Shortly after he got home a neighbor called with the news that Yeager was in his yard.

"I almost didn’t recognize him," Moxon said. "He was badly beaten.

"Hes still at home recovering," Moxon said of his 2-year-old dog, also a German Shepherd. " I'm hoping he’ll recover in the next few days."

Jimi was a "multi purpose" dog, trained at detecting drugs and explosives and tracking people. It's a common practice for police handlers to take their assigned dogs home even though they belong to the departments.

"This is the first time I've come to work without him in two years," Moxon said.

Anyone with information should call Lamar County Sheriff’s Office at 770-358-5159 or 770-358-8881.