On Wednesday morning after returning home from his midnight shift, patrol officer Nelson Enriquez entered his home without his bloodhound Jimmy and a 4-year-old Belgian Malinois named Hector that he also cared for.
Enriquez was paired with Jimmy six years ago, and the dog lived at the officer's house with his wife and two children, according to the Miami Herald.
He allegedly left the dogs in the back cabin of a Ford Explorer SUV with the engine turned off, and investigators said that they could have been left in the car for more than six hours.
It was reportedly shortly before 7 p.m. when Enriquez went back outside and discovered that his beloved police dogs were dead inside of their crates.
He then called the police to report the horrific incident.
"He entered his home sometime in the mid-to-late morning and left the dogs in the vehicle," Hieleah Police spokesman Carl Zogby told WFOR-TV. "He discovered sometime late afternoon, probably preparing for his next shift, he discovered what had happened. He discovered the dogs in his car, in his driveway. You can imagine his reaction at that point. Like I had said before, these are two beloved members of his family."
Enriquez is a 13-year veteran of the department, and worked with the K9 patrol for the past seven years.
Jimmy and Hector's deaths are being treated as if they were full-fledged police officers.
The Miami Herald wrote that there are still questions that remain unanswered, top among them being, "What happened during the nine-hour window when Enriquez parked his vehicle in his home driveway and when he called Davie police at 6:50 p.m?"
"I love animals and I love police officers for what they do to protect us, but that guy needs to be charged with murder. There is no excuse for that. No excuse whatsoever," a heartbroken neighbor said, according to The Examiner.
Enriquez has been suspended with pay until investigations by the Davie Police Department and Hialeah Police internal affairs are completed.
