Howell man worked OT at Ford plant to pay for Wayne Co. Sheriff dog’s bulletproof vest

Wayne County Sheriff's Cpl. Rick Cadez and his partner, K-9 Gunner, cautiously weaved through the side streets of Inkster one dark night in late April. It was pouring rain. They were searching for two men who fled from a shooting. Witnesses warned Cadez that the men were armed.

It was on Gunner to find the suspects, so he was out front, which meant if shots were fired, Gunner would take the bullets first. The dog had no bulletproof vest to protect him, a reality that was never far from Cadez's mind.

"You’re always hypervigilant of your surroundings and, at any moment, you can encounter those armed individuals," Cadez said. "You wouldn’t want one of your partners, a human, not protected with a vest. (Gunner's) a member of the police department, too. Tracking in heavy rain really disturbs the ground scent for the dog and the suspects got away. But you’re tracking someone who’s armed, and it would have been beneficial to have the dog wearing a vest.”

Situations such as that one inspired Cadez to take action. Earlier this year, Cadez applied for a custom-fitted ballistics vest for Gunner from Brady's K-9 Fund, a nonprofit started in 2018 by a then-8-year-old boy in Ohio that provides bulletproof vests for police and military dogs. In late March, Gunner was approved to get a vest.

A man who lives in Howell donated the money to buy Gunner's vest by working overtime at his job at Ford's Rouge plant to pay for it.

On July 17, Gunner got his new vest, worth about $1,500. Besides the vest, the sheriff's department also won a separate grant to purchase two new dogs for explosive detection and patrol work, bringing the K-9 unit up to six dogs.

"They’re an invaluable asset," Cadez said. "As a locating tool, their sense of smell is a million times better than a human’s. They can literally do something we’re not capable of doing as far as explosive detection. They’re a huge part of securing venues like the NFL draft, dignitaries visiting ... these dogs go in and sweep these buildings.”

Police dog and family pet

Deaths in the line of duty are a harsh reality of that work. According to the Officer Down Memorial Page, this year through July, five police dogs in the United States have died in the line of duty. Last year, 26 dogs died, 10 by gunfire.

Gunner is the third canine partner Cadez has had in his 14 years with the unit. The 21-month-old German Shepherd-Belgian Malinois was certified for patrol on April 10 through the National Police Association of Professional Canine Handlers. He is a "dual-purpose patrol K-9." That means he has multiple jobs. Gunner detects explosives, tracks criminals and searches for evidence, such as if someone tosses a weapon in a field.

"If a home or building gets broken into and we’re not sure if the criminal is still in there, we send the dog in as a locating tool," Cadez said.

The relationship between the dog and handler is profound. The dogs live with their police partners, often as the family pet, when they're not pursuing bad guys. So it is important to Cadez that Gunner comes home to his kids alive.

“For a long time, vests weren’t always an option for K-9s," Cadez said. "The previous ones we had ... they were so restrictive and heavy they almost caused more of a danger, where the dog would become fatigued. You want them at their best."

Gunner's new vest is a LOF Defence Systems K-9 Streetfighter. It is lightweight and made to fit Gunner comfortably so he can have it on during his entire shift and be ready to jump to action with his vital organs protected, Cadez said.

A little boy puts vests on 1,100 dogs

In 2018, Brady Snakovsky, then 8, of Strongsville, Ohio — about a 30-minute drive south of Cleveland — was watching the TV show "Live PD." He realized the police dogs were not wearing ballistic vests, his mother, Leah Tornabene, told the Free Press.

"He asked me if he could help the local dogs," Tornabene said.

They started with a GoFundMe goal of $1,500 to buy one vest. But local news picked up the story and it took off and a year later, animal rights group ASPCA awarded Snakovsky "Kid of the Year" for outfitting dogs with vests.

As of this year, Brady's K-9 Fund has $1.3 million. Since its inception, the fund has provided vests to 1,137 dogs, with 56 dogs on a waiting list, Tornabene said. Brady is 14 and busy in school, so Tornabene is president of the fund.

"I’ve helped K-9s in Ukraine, we did all their Army dogs. We’ve done Canada, Sweden and the U.K. and Afghanistan with the U.S. Army," Tornabene said. "Gunner is one of our many canines in need. Handlers reach out to me and they get put on a waiting list."

The wait is typically three months and then another few months to tailor the vest to the dog, she said.

Working a little OT at Ford

Cadez was notified on March 28 that Gunner was approved for a vest. A sponsor, Tom Sperling, of Howell, donated the $1,200 for the vest (Brady's K-9 Fund gets a discount off the $1,500 price), Tornabene said.

A week earlier, Sperling, 61, sponsored a vest for K-9 Zeke at the Kent County Sheriff’s department. Sperling said he has always had a soft spot for dogs, but it intensified after his beloved Belgian Malinois, Hercules, died last year. Sperling has sponsored about half a dozen K-9s in Brady's K-9 Fund, but Zeke and Gunner were the first to whom he got to hand deliver the vests.

"That was the coolest thing, to see where my money is going and how grateful they are," Sperling said.

A skilled tradesman at Ford’s Rouge Plant, Sperling said to afford the vests, “I just work a little extra overtime. I thought if this little kid is doing this, I gotta do something to help him. K-9 Smoke was the first one I did in Ocean City, Maryland, about five years ago. But one lady, through Brady’s K-9 Fund, sponsored 100 dogs. I’m trying to catch up to her now.”

Picking the right dog

To be a patrol dog in Wayne County requires a hard drive to work, courage, confidence, smarts and sociability.

Cadez got Gunner on Oct. 30, 2023. You guessed it, he applied for a grant. The AKC Kennel awarded him $10,000 for a new dog, so he flew to New Smyrna Beach, Florida, to the Southern Coast K-9 kennel to evaluate dogs, most of whom had no training.

"They all come from Europe; there are some in the U.S.," Cadez said. "Gunner came from Hungary. The first year of their lives they are bred and evaluated. The ones that play and take a nap are sold to be pets.”

That October day, Cadez said he looked at about 10 dogs. He wanted to see a hunt drive.

"It's where he knows something’s hidden and he wants to find it. Where it’s the only goal in his life is to find it. With Gunner, it was extreme," Cadez said. "If there’s a bomb, you want to know he’ll hunt for an hour to find it, not where he stops after 10 minutes and says, ‘I don’t like this game anymore.’ "

Gunner's personality made him stand out, too, because he had an "off switch" and was friendly when he wasn't working, Cadez said.

"He had a real nice demeanor," Cadez said. "You want them to kind of be fearless and want to face any type of threat head-on. But you also want to know that they can be safe and social in other environments. He’s phenomenal with my children and out in the public with people when he’s not working.”

After paying the $10,000 for Gunner, Cadez rented a car to drive back with the dog to Michigan, "staying in little hotel in North Carolina ... so it was a real cool bonding experience with him for two days," he said.

Two new dogs

On July 22, Cpl. Michael Noe and Deputy Ramiro Sauceda headed to Shallow Creek Kennels in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania, to pick out their new K-9 partners from the other grant, about which the department declined to disclose details. Each chose a 1-year-old German Shepherd/Belgian Malinois mix to work as dual purpose patrol dogs like Gunner.

Noe named his dog Ghost and Sauceda named his Zuko.

"They both were the best prospects out of the 10 dogs we tested," Cadez said. "They displayed the over-the-top drive and confidence along with the sociability we look for."

Protecting presidential figures

Gunner has yet to make any arrests or find bombs — the latter is a good thing. His biggest call to duty to date was May 6 when Vice President Kamala Harris was in Detroit at the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History. The U.S. Secret Service asked for Gunner's help.

"Gunner did assist with explosive sweeps. It was pretty cool because we checked journalists’ bags and backpacks entering into the secured area," Cadez said.

And, going forward, Cadez knows the next time he and Gunner are called to search for armed criminals, Gunner will be wearing a vest, "so when he comes out of the vehicle, he’ll be protected.”

Contact Jamie L. LaReau: jlareau@freepress.com. Follow her on Twitter @jlareauan. Read more on General Motors and sign up for our autos newsletter. Become a subscriber.