DEKALB COUNTY, Ga. — A DeKalb County police K-9 who was injured while on-duty is recovering after a second surgery.
Authorities said Thursday afternoon K-9 Officer D'Jango underwent another surgery earlier that morning.
The K-9 was shot Tuesday afternoon while attempting to catch a suspect on the run. Police said the suspect, 26-year-old Akinyia Malik Jerome Gray, was wanted on numerous outstanding warrants and shot the dog. Several officers returned fire, striking Gray. He later died of his injuries.
D’Jango was injured near his pelvic/lower abdomen area, with significant damage to his right rear femur. No major organs were damaged.
The first surgery was Tuesday at Blue Pearl Veterinary Hospital.
The K-9, who has been with the department for the last six years, had previously beat cancer, police said.
Photos: K-9 D'Jango
11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross spoke to the vets at Blue Pearl Veterinary Clinic who helped care for him. They said as soon as they got the call, they got their operating room ready to do whatever they had to do to save his life.
"There was a team outside waiting for the team to arrive, he was transported immediately to our emergency department where a team starts right off," explained Medical Director and surgeon Kevin Winkler.
"Fortunately there were no significant major organ problems and we got him out of surgery," he added.
Veterinarians said he has been improving since, but explained that they had to wait two days to perform the second surgery to fix a broken leg to make sure D'Jango was stable enough to operate.
Winkler said they'll be there to support D'Jango through his recovery, as well, no matter what that looks like.
It's what we are here for, and it's what drives us," Winkler said.
D'Jango's partner, Sgt Cusimano is reading messages of support from people all over the world who are pulling for them.
The whole department says it's grateful for all of the support.
Like pets? Follow K9Kait.
OTHER HEADLINES: