Behind the Badge
Fountain Valley Police Officer Bill Hughes and his four-legged partner, Perro, put in thousands of hours preparing to catch bad guys.
They put their training to good use earlier this week, helping Anaheim Police detectives apprehend and arrest a suspected killer.
Officer Hughes and Perro
On Tuesday, at about 3:30 a.m., Perro dragged the suspect, Kwame Carpenter, out of a small lake in the northeast corner of Mile Square Park.
The night before, Carpenter allegedly stabbed his girlfriend, Moureen Gathua-Carpenter, 24, and infant son, Kyan Gathua-Carpenter, 1, both of whom died from the assault.
Police released a photo of Kwame Carpenter and a description of his 2001 Lincoln Town Car to the media and distributed it via social media.
A security guard at Fountain Valley Regional Medical Center spotted his car and notified police. When officers attempted to arrest him, he drove into a police car and a parked car, according to a Fountain Valley Police news release. At that point, an FVPD officer fired two rounds at the suspect, the release said. Nobody was injured as a result of the shooting.
Carpenter collided with another parked car near the park, abandoned the car and ran into the lake, where Perro dragged him out, police said.
“It was good teamwork,” said Fountain Valley Police Chief Dan Llorens, whose agency joined officers from Anaheim and Santa Ana police departments and deputies from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department in the search.
Coincidentally, BehindtheBadgeOC.com published a video featuring Hughes and Perro in action. The video showcases the Fullerton and Fountain Valley K-9 teams, demonstrating their intense training.
Click the video above to see them in action.
