PORT ANGELES — Radar, slain Forest Service Officer Kristine Fairbanks’ K-9 partner, is now retired and “rather spoiled,” says his caretaker.
“He’s got his own bed; he sits up on the couch with me,” said Port Angeles police Officer Dan Morse, 31.
“He has free run of the domain.”
The 8-year-old German shepherd was in Fairbanks’ sport utility vehicle when she was shot outside of it one year ago today at the Dungeness Forks Campground.
Radar is believed to have witnessed the shooting from inside the vehicle.
Radar was Fairbanks’ third dog partner during her more than 15 years as a K-9 officer.
Partners
Together, they tracked down thefts of timber, salal and other forest products in the 300,000 acres of national forest that they patrolled.
“It’s really nice to have a partner with me,” Fairbanks told the Peninsula Daily News in 2002. “I have a lot of area to cover and I’m always by myself.”
Fairbanks left Radar in her patrol vehicle when she approached the owner of a suspicious red van, Shawn M. Roe of Everett.
An FBI report suggests that Fairbanks thought it best to leave him in her vehicle due to the presence of a chocolate lab, named Jake, that Roe had with him.
The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office picked up Jake a few days later near Palo Alto Road, where it was protecting a black cap that belonged to Roe.
Jake was soon reunited with Roe’s unidentified brother.
But unable to come to her aid or chase Roe down, Radar was reported as going “nuts” in the vehicle by Justin Rivet of Port Angeles who came upon the scene about 20 minutes later.
At Fairbanks’ memorial on Sept. 29 at Civic Field, Radar howled when his partner’s call to dispatch was played over loudspeakers.
“He was really stressed out when that happened,” Morse said, referring to the shooting. “He’s mellowed out since then.”
For the first few months after the shooting, Radar lived with Port Angeles Police Cpl. Kevin Miller, a K-9 officer who went through training with Fairbanks and had been close friends with her since.
“Overall, I think the dog is doing fine, given the circumstances,” Miller said. “He’s definitely in a great place.”
Miller said he spoke with Forest Service Special Agent Tom Lyons, one of Fairbanks’ supervisors, about retiring Radar.
“I think that overall, we all kind of agreed,” he said. “It would be different if he was a year out of training, and still had several years to go.
“I mean, he probably had two years left.”
At age 51, Fairbanks could have retired from the force herself, Miller said.
“But she wanted to see Radar through,” he said. “It kind of turned out to be the other way around,” he added, solemnly.
Good home
Since he has his own K-9 partner, Jag, living at his home, and Radar is a bit of an “alpha dog,” Miller thought it best after a few months for Radar to move to another good home.
Miller said that he and Fairbanks bonded instantly during K-9 training in the early 1990s over their love for dogs.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about it,” he said, referring to the shooting. “Kris was one of my close friends.”
The loss of Fairbanks has left the Forest Service without a K-9 officer in Washington state.
Morse, who loaned his help with K-9 training in Port Angeles, also remembers Fairbanks fondly.
“She was always laughing,” he said.
“She always had a smile on her face; always a happy person.”
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Reporter Tom Callis can be reached at 360-417-3532 or at tom.callis@peninsula dailynews.com.
