Police dog Titan recovering
The police dog Titan recovering from his stab wounds. Courtesy San Diego Police

A man who stabbed a San Diego police dog during an altercation with officers in the Midway District was sentenced Monday to one year in custody and two years of felony probation.

Dedrick Daknell Jones, 35, pleaded guilty last month to felony charges of animal cruelty and resisting arrest for stabbing K-9 Titan on Jan. 25 after an hours-long standoff with officers from the San Diego Police Department.

The dog was treated for stab wounds to his side that caused a laceration to his colon in three places, police said. Titan had six to eight inches of his colon surgically removed and received more than 100 stitches.

Police said officers were originally called for a report of a man trespassing at a business in the 3300 block of Barnett Avenue, southwest of Interstate 5.

Jones refused to give the officers his information and kept reaching for his bag, according to police.

When officers tried to put him in handcuffs, he punched the officers and ran into a nearby military property, where he stood on a shipping container waving a knife, police said.

About four hours later, emergency negotiators convinced him to come down from the container, but Jones “refused to put the knife down,” the department said in a tweet.

“The officer released his K9 partner, Titan, to assist and the suspect stabbed him,” police said.

Officers then ran in and took Jones into custody.

In the days after the incident, the department reported that Titan “is doing well and in good spirits.”

In a tweet, the department said, “We are grateful Titan is on the road to recovery. He’s a brave boy!”

–City News Service