A man has been arrested on multiple charges weeks after he led a foot chase in which a police dog was killed in the line of duty, the Richland County Sheriff’s Department said.
While Thomas Taylor will not be charged in the June 20 death of K9 Wick, the 44-year-old was charged with first-degree burglary, aggravated robbery and disregarding a blue light, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
Taylor was arrested Monday after members of the sheriff’s fugitive unit tracked him down to an apartment complex in the 100 block of Ripplemeyer Avenue, the news release said. That’s in Columbia, between Two Notch Road and Farrow Road.
There is no information available about how officers discovered Taylor was in the apartment complex.
He was taken to the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center and remains in custody after bail was set at $35,000 for the combined charges, jail records show.
Taylor initially eluded police after a chase that saw Wick struck by a vehicle on Interstate 77.
The chase
The incident began around 1 a.m. on June 20, when officers identified a stolen vehicle at Windsor Lake Boulevard and Brookfield Road, the sheriff’s office said.
Officers attempted to pull the vehicle over, but the driver, later identified as Taylor, refused to stop, prompting a chase onto I-77, the sheriff’s department said.
At the second mile marker on I-77, officers deployed their batons and stopped the vehicle, but Taylor then ran away, the sheriff’s office said.
With Taylor still in sight, K9 Specialist Zaid Abdullah deployed Wick, the sheriff’s office said. Abdullah and Wick were in pursuit when the 3-year-old Belgian Malinois’ leash broke, the sheriff’s office said. Wick pulled away from Abdullah and continued along the northbound side of I-77, where he was struck by a vehicle, the sheriff’s office said.
Wick, who had been with the sheriff’s office for a year and a half, died at the scene, the sheriff said.
The driver of the vehicle that struck Wick has been identified and the South Carolina Highway Patrol will conduct an investigation into the collision, the sheriff’s office said.
Commemoration
On June 20, a funeral procession was held for Wick, stretching nearly 10 miles.
A memorial service for Wick was held Tuesday morning at Riverland Hills Baptist Church on Lake Murray Boulevard.
“As the Richland County Sheriff’s Department mourns the loss of K9 Wick, we thank the community for their support,” the sheriff’s department said in June.
Before Wick’s death, the sheriff’s office had a K9 unit of 26 dogs and their handlers, making it one of the largest law enforcement K9 units in South Carolina.
The sheriff’s department’s team has two explosive detection dogs; five to detect human remains; and one to detect electronics, which is often used in child pornography cases. The rest of the dogs are full-service, meaning they are trained in multiple skills, including tracking, arrest, article searches and narcotics detection, The State previously reported.
