West Hartford Mourning Loss Of Decorated Police Dog Axel

WEST HARTFORD, CT — Axel, a popular and decorated police dog in West Hartford, has died from a rare heart condition. Law enforcement officials made the announcement early Wednesday afternoon.

Police officials said Axel died on April 25, the Officer Nick Roman, Axel's partner, "made the difficult decision to put K-9 Axel to sleep."

Axel's health has rapidly declined and tests revealed an untreatable condition to his heart, officials said.

Axel had served West Hartford from 2012 until his retirement in early January.

Some of Axel's career highlights include:

• In 2013, one of Axel’s first apprehensions was in Simsbury, where a suspect displayed a firearm and fled a scene, only to be located by Axel in a tree.
• Also in 2013, A suspected fled a shots fired incident in West Hartford with a gun in his hand. After an attempted carjacking, the suspect broke into three different homes and ended up stashing the gun. Axel located the suspect inside one of the homes and he was taken into custody.
• Axel assisted West Hartford officers in a drug search of a vehicle that yielded a stash of heroin. The drugs were traced to a "drug house" town that contained $13,000 worth of narcotics and $10,000 dollars in cash.
• In 2017, using just a small piece of clothing, K-9 Axel located a shoplifting suspect who fled from Officers.
• In July 2020, Axel was dispatched to a West Hartford for a possible burglary. Axel was deployed inside and located a suspect whom tried fleeing from Axel. Axel took the suspect into custody as he was trying to escape from the business by climbing up into the ceiling.
• In a period of a few weeks, more than 11 car burglary suspects were taken into custody as a result of Axel either locating them or "flushing them out" to perimeter units during a track.
• Axel's "last notable arrest" was in November, where he was dispatched to an address in West Hartford to investigate a man wanted on numerous Domestic Violence charges. The man, who had a court order not be near the home, was located by Axel in the attic. Despite the lights being "intentionally disabled," Axel located the ma, who began fighting with him, according to police. Axel "immediately" took the man into custody.
• Axel was also involved in multiple, multi-town search-and-seizure warrants with local, state and federal authorities.

Police said Axel's heart was donated to veterinary researchers in an effort to "learn more about his rare condition."

A temporary memorial will be on display with Axel's cruiser parked in front of the West Hartford Police Department.