MANATEE COUNTY – A man is in jail after stabbing a Manatee County Sheriff’s Office K-9 with a kitchen knife.
“Instead of giving himself up on the stolen car and turns out to have outstanding warrants he decides to make things more difficult for himself and in the process ended up with a long list of criminal offenses,” said Manatee County Sheriff’s Office PIO, Randy Warren.
36-year-old Christopher Darlington is behind bars after running from deputies in a stolen vehicle, breaking into someone’s home, arming himself with their kitchen knives and then stabbing K-9 Loki.
MCSO deputies were able to locate the stolen vehicle in the Walmart parking lot on State Rd 64 east.
“As soon as he saw the deputies saw him, he was in a stolen vehicle, he runs into one of our cars and then proceeds to drive over the shopping carts and out of the parking lot, our aviation is on it fairly quick,” said Warren.
“We see him on U.S. highway 301, it goes off the road, into the trees and into a fence, he bails out of the car,” said Warren.
On foot, Darlington then finds his way into a random home
“It was un-occupied at the time, people were not home, somebody lives there, breaks in, goes, to the kitchen finds himself some butcher knives and arms himself with these butcher knives, said Warren.
After refusing to come out of the residence, the deputy goes in with K-9 Loki.
“As soon as the door opens, K9 Loki, who is a 7-year-old Belgian Malinois, very experienced dog, does what he is trained to do and goes on into the bedroom, unfortunately Mr. Darlington decides to use those knives and starts swinging the blades back and forth and he ended up getting Loki in the nose, on top of the head even and puncture wound in his neck,” said Warren.
K-9 Loki is now recovering with 12 stitches, while Darlington is in jail on 8 charges, as he was found with fentanyl and stolen property taken from the home.
“This could have ended a lot worse and things could’ve ended a lot worse for Mr. Darlington if he would have come at that dog even more aggressively than he did, said Warren.
K-9 Loki is expected to make a full recovery and back to work in about two weeks.
Prior to this incident, Christopher Darlington had two outstanding warrants for Contempt of Court. He is now charged with a list of other crimes.
Possession of Stolen Vehicle
Aggravated Battery on LEO
Felony Criminal Mischief
Armed Burglary
Aggravated Battery on Police Canine
Trafficking Fentanyl
Warrant for Contempt of Court for DUI
Warrant for Contempt of Court for DWLS
Darlington remains in jail with a $72,000 bail.
