A beloved canine member of the Bernalillo County Police Department is expected to make a full recovery after being stabbed by a woman with a known history of aggravated assault.
Sheriff Manny Gonzales said he is “very optimistic” about Nordy, who has been on the job for just six-months, and believes that he will be able to return to duty.
“I talked to the K9 handler a little earlier, he’s in good spirits,” Gonzales told KOB 4 on Sept. 2. “I believe about anywhere from 10 days to two weeks, the dog will be back on the streets.”
Police have since charged 40-year-old Jebrene Garcia in connection with the incident after she broke into a nearby home and barricaded herself inside. She had just been released from jail four days earlier.
“Jabrene will be charged with aggravated residential burglary, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, battery, resisting, evading and obstructing an officer, injury to a police dog, and aggravated assault on a police officer,” Gonzales said. He added that Garcia has a history of aggravated assault and battery charges.
Investigators described Garcia’s latest transgression as being far from an isolated incident, noting that the home where she barricaded herself belonged to her sister’s ex-boyfriend, who resides next door to his mother.
“She came down here, walked here, told me she was sorry for a lot of stuff, and I told her that is between my son and her sister,” Clementine Kenton, the mother, told KOB 4. “And then she asked me if she could sleep here, and I said, no, she couldn’t sleep here, because I have a grandson who has cancer, so no one is allowed in there. Then she asked me if I could sleep at my son’s porch and I told her, no, because he wasn’t home, so she asked me for a bottle of water – I gave it to her, then she left.”
Kenton added that Garcia’s actions left them feeling worried and frightened.
“We haven’t slept at all,” Kenton said. “I thought they were going to kill her in there, I just didn’t want to see somebody dead in my son’s house.”
Online records indicated that Garcia was booked at the Metropolitan Detention Center.