Anna Police Department loses member of family

The Anna Police Department lost a valuable member of its family on June 28.

Anna Police Chief Dale Foster shared the following news release about the loss:

On June 28, 2009, the Anna Police Department lost a valuable member of our police family.

K-9 Barry was discovered by his handler, Officer Daric Smith, deceased in his kennel from what appeared to be natural causes.

In May 2008, Barry and Officer Smith were introduced in Little Rock, Ark., and began the training to serve the citizens of Union County.

Barry was a strong-willed canine and his hours of training and dedicated service led to several drug-related searches, seizures and arrests in Anna and Union County.

In addition to being trained to alert to the odors of marijuana, cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine, Barry was also trained to perform patrol duties such as searches and handler protection.

Barry was transported to the Animal Disease Laboratory for an autopsy, which revealed the cause of death to be gastric torsion.

Barry was a dedicated K-9 and a valuable asset to the Anna Police Department and to Union County.

He will be missed by all who had the pleasure to work with him.