The Gwinnett County Police Honor Guard will conduct an official line of duty death funeral Thursday for K-9 Eli, a 9-year-old Belgian Malinois who died after tracking a suspect in Snellville.
The ceremony will begin at the Gwinnett County Police Training Center at 854 Winder Highway in Lawrenceville, where a police procession will leave and travel to the Oak Rest Pet Cemetery in Bethlehem. The funeral will take place at the pet cemetery, located at 2691 Harbins Road.
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The procession route will travel from Sweetgum Road SE to Martins Chapel Road to Brooks Road SE to Harbins Road, ending at the cemetery.
Only police vehicles may participate in the procession. Those who wish to participate should arrive at the training center before 9 a.m. The procession will begin at 9:20 a.m. and services at the cemetery are planned to begin at 10 a.m.
There is limited parking at the cemetery, so the department asks the public to “line the procession route in safe locations.”
Eli is the first Gwinnett County K-9 officer to die on the job. He and his handler, Officer Matthew Bonnano, were trying to track a suspect who had fled on foot from a car pursuit with Snellville and DeKalb County police.
The track ended after 30 minutes, and on the way back to Bonnano’s car, Eli fell to the ground and began acting strangely. Eli was transported to a veterinarian for emergency treatment, but died in the doctor’s office.
Preliminary findings from a University of Georgia necropsy suggest Eli’s death was heat-related; it was about 90 degrees when Eli was tracking the suspect. The final report will not be available for one to two weeks, according to police.
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