K-9 officer Rasta dies

Crawford recalls faithfulness of canine partner

By TERESA RESSEL
Daily Journal Staff Writer

Rasta was Alan Crawford’s buddy, partner and faithful sidekick.

For seven years — from 1999 to 2006 — Rasta worked for the St. Francois County Sheriff’s Department as an explosive detection canine. On May 31, the Belgian Malinois died.

St. Francois County Sheriff Dan Bullock said when they had Rasta in service, he was a good dog, who helped with many cases.

Rasta had to retire in 2006 because he developed severe arthritis. Soon after, Crawford, a law enforcement officer for nearly 20 years, left the sheriff’s department to work for the railroad.

Crawford said Rasta’s arthritis continued to get worse. He could tell Rasta was in a lot of pain because he would yelp when he sat down. Rasta was a pretty smart dog with a good nose so it was hard to trick him into taking medicine Crawford added.

Rasta was taken to the vet this weekend after going into respiratory distress. It was decided it would be best for him to be put to sleep.

“He was my buddy,” Crawford said. “To a lot of people, it’s just a dog but I developed a special bond with him.”

Rasta came from Vohne Liche Kennels, owned and operated by Ken Licklider in Indiana.

“... Ken takes pride in his work and has an uncanny ability to pair up K-9s with handlers and he couldn’t have picked a better one than Rasta for me,” Crawford said. “To me, Rasta was the best.”

Crawford often put his life in Rasta’s hands when searching for explosive devices or people who were on the run from police.

He remembers one time when he and the dog went into the woods in Washington County, tracking a man who had run from police. He said it was night and total darkness. He said Rasta stopped and put his nose to the ground but the officers couldn’t immediately see anything. With the help of flashlights, the officers saw his nose was near the man’s shoe. The man was lying in leaves on his assault rifle.

No one ever tried to hurt Rasta, Crawford said, because the dog intimidated people.

“We never found any explosives but we never missed any either,” he said.

The dog did pick up the slight scent of ammonium nitrate once while investigating a bomb threat but after investigating, it was learned that nitrate scent had nothing to do with the threat.

Crawford said Rasta was always willing and ready to go to work.

“He loved to go to work and anytime I had to go to court and left (him) in my patrol car he would prance around ready and willing to go to work,” Crawford said. “When I would let him out of his pen, he would run straight to the patrol car ready to go.”

 

Teresa Ressel is a reporter for the Daily Journal and can be reached at 573-431-2010, ext. 179 or at tressel@dailyjournalonline.com.

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