Livingston County Sheriff Steve Cox announces the retirement of K-9 Zaki.
Zaki came to the sheriff’s office in 2016 and was assigned to former Deputy Chris Mueller. Cox says this was after the office raised funds in 2014 and 2015 with community support to implement a K-9 program.
Deputy Nicholas Leadbetter has been the K-9 handler since Mueller left employment with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office.
Zaki helped solve felony drug cases for multiple agencies in North Missouri and helped on dozens of criminal tracks and apprehensions. Cox reports Zaki helped find a fugitive or fugitives hiding from law enforcement in Daviess County when they busted a multi-million dollar illegal marijuana growing operation tied to a Mexican drug cartel.
The sheriff notes that Zaki’s presence on the scene many times saved use of force situations as many people would surrender.
Early in Zaki’s career, he was struck by a vehicle while with Mueller, but he was not seriously injured. Later in his career, Zaki was injured by a suspect during a critical use of force incident and since recovered. Cox notes Zaki also developed medical problems and had to have part of his tail amputated.
The sheriff says the Livingston County Commission and Zaki’s vet agreed and support the decision that K-9 will remain with handler Leadbetter after his retirement.
The Livingston County Sheriff’s Office is not looking for a replacement K-9 at this time; however, the sheriff’s department will consider it in the future.
