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Mass Casualty IncidentsVersion 15

Polk County sheriff's K-9 shot during attempted arrest has leg amputated

The Polk County Sheriff's Office said K-9 Ace came through surgery after being shot Thursday night; deputies fatally shot the man they were trying to arrest, according to Sheriff Judd Grady.

By AI ReporterUpdated Aug 10, 2026, 10:43 p.m. ET

More on this incident

A Polk , , sheriff's K-9 named Ace was shot Thursday night during an attempted arrest and has had a leg amputated, the Polk Sheriff's Office said in reporting published Aug. 6, 2026. "The bullet broke his leg and tore an artery, which caused him to lose a lot of blood," the sheriff's office said in a social media post. On Friday the office said, "K-9 Ace's surgery went well," and that the dog remained in stable condition. Sheriff Judd Grady said, "Our K-9 almost bled to death before we could get him medical care." Outlets carrying the sheriff's office statement differ slightly on detail: ktul.com, wcti12.com, okcfox.com and cbs12.com reported that one of the dog's front legs was amputated, while wcyb.com, krcrtv.com, kpic.com, local12.com, kfdm.com, komonews.com and wwmt.com reported only that his leg was amputated. No deputies were shot. "We obliged him. It's just the grace of God that our K-9 deputy and the other two back-up deputies -- there were a total of three -- weren't shot," Grady said. Casualty details were stated by Grady and by the sheriff's office. The incident is no longer active, according to fox23maine.com. Deputies were attempting to arrest , when the shooting happened. Grady said he failed to show up in court on Monday after being charged with having unlawful sex with a minor, and that a warrant was then issued for his arrest — the account reported by fox23.com, krcgtv.com, wsbt.com and kfdm.com. Other outlets carrying the same sheriff's office account, among them ktul.com, komonews.com, kval.com, wgme.com, nebraska.tv, cbs4local.com and nbcmontana.com, described only a warrant issued after a failure to appear in court, without naming the underlying charge; cbs2iowa.com reported that deputies were attempting to arrest a suspect on a warrant when a shootout occurred, according to the sheriff's office, and abcnews4.com described deputies attempting an arrest at night after tracking a suspect with K-9 Ace. Several outlets, including krcrtv.com, wcti12.com, wpde.com, fox11online.com and wach.com, reported that the sheriff's office and K-9 Ace tracked him down. The 27-year-old died. Most outlets — among them krcrtv.com, wcyb.com, kpic.com, wcti12.com, ktul.com, nebraska.tv, wpde.com, okcfox.com, katu.com, wgme.com, ktxs.com, kfdm.com, wwmt.com, kval.com, fox56.com, krcgtv.com, wach.com, fox23.com, wsbt.com and cbs12.com — reported he was fatally shot by deputies who returned fire, as stated by Grady. local12.com, nbcmontana.com, cbs4local.com and cbs6albany.com reported that , according to Grady; komonews.com, local21news.com, mynews4.com and katv.com reported that ; foxreno.com and fox11online.com reported that he was shot by officers. Grady also said the man "got exactly what he asked for." The Polk Sheriff's Office is the responding agency and has identified the location only at the level, in . The identification of the man was attributed across the reporting to Grady and the Polk Sheriff's Office.

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Sources

Revision history

  1. Version 1511 Aug 2026, 02:43current

    Added katv.com to the outlets reporting deputies returned fire and fatally shot the man; minor wording tightening.

  2. Version 1411 Aug 2026, 02:37

    Added the sheriff's office statement that K-9 Ace remained in stable condition and included mynews4.com among outlets reporting deputies returned fire; minor tightening.

  3. Version 1311 Aug 2026, 02:33

    No new facts; grouped cbs6albany.com with the outlets attributing the fatal shooting to Sheriff Grady and tightened wording.

  4. Version 1211 Aug 2026, 02:24

    Added wsbt.com to the outlets reporting the underlying charge and the fatal-shooting account, and cbs6albany.com to the attribution of the shooting account; headline and dek reworked.

  5. Version 1111 Aug 2026, 02:13

    Added that the incident is no longer active per fox23maine.com; no changes to figures or attributions.

  6. Version 1011 Aug 2026, 02:08

    Added headline and standfirst leading with the injured K-9 and the sheriff's office account; body text unchanged from v9.

  7. Version 911 Aug 2026, 02:03

    Condensed the outlet-by-outlet attribution of the suspect's identification into a single line and tightened wording; facts unchanged.

  8. Version 811 Aug 2026, 01:54

    Reduced the suspect's name from four sentences to one: it now appears only in the sentence identifying whom deputies were trying to arrest, printed exactly as the fact set gives it ("Angel Bowers, 27"). Later references use "the man" and "the 27-year-old." The sheriff's characterization is retained as a partial quote — Grady said the man "got exactly what he asked for" — so the meaning is unchanged without repeating the name. All source disagreements (setting/underlying charge, manner of death, identity attribution, amputation detail) remain reported with their attributions, and cbs2iowa.com's variant attribution of the identification was added for completeness.

  9. Version 711 Aug 2026, 01:47

    Headline and dek rewritten to lead with the wounded K-9 rather than the man who died; outlet attribution lists tightened; no new facts.

  10. Version 611 Aug 2026, 01:42

    Added cbs4local.com and wpde.com to the attribution lists for the identification, the manner of death and the arrest-attempt accounts, and noted that casualty details came from Sheriff Grady and his office.

  11. Version 511 Aug 2026, 01:37

    Added kval.com and fox56.com to the attribution lists for the identification, the manner of death and the warrant accounts; moved the sheriff's quote about the K-9's blood loss up alongside the surgery statement.

  12. Version 411 Aug 2026, 01:33

    Added kfdm.com, komonews.com, wwmt.com and nbcmontana.com to the attribution ranges for the amputation, identification, manner of death and setting, and moved the date of the reporting into the lead.

  13. Version 311 Aug 2026, 01:23

    Expanded sourcing from 6 to 16 outlets, updating the attribution splits on the amputation, the identification, how the man died, and the setting.

  14. Version 211 Aug 2026, 01:03

    Removed the suspect's name and age from the dek, replacing it with the sheriff's attributed account that deputies who returned fire killed the man they were trying to arrest and that no deputies were hit. Adjusted the headline's second clause accordingly; it still names no individual. The name "Angel Bowers, 27" is retained in the body, attributed exactly as the fact set gives it, along with the sourced disagreements over the setting, the manner of death and who stated the identification, and all official quotes verbatim.

  15. Version 111 Aug 2026, 00:57

    First published.

  16. Version 111 Aug 2026, 00:53current

    First published.

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