Over a thousand people attended Jason Ellis' burial in rural Kentucky late last week, many of them fellow police officers from nearby states. Ellis, a 33-year-old K-9 officer, was killed in what the authorities suspect to have been an ambush.
The moment Ellis' police dog, Fido, placed his paw on the closed casket was recorded by photographer Jonathan Palmer in a heartbreaking photo.
On May 25, Fido was not with Ellis when he was shot many times while removing debris from a highway off-ramp in Bardstown, Kentucky, a small town of 12,000 people located 40 miles southeast of Louisville. The murder of Ellis has not been solved.
Many other K-9 cops came to the burial, and the Herald Leader reported that their dogs could be heard howling from their cruisers.
When the honor guard was announced, hundreds of cops sprang to attention. The ceremony's 60 or so police dogs began barking as a result. Bardstown Police Chief Rick McCubbin paid tribute to Ellis, a six-year police veteran, and vowed to find the murderer.
McCubbin continued, "I'm your chief, Jason, but you're our hero, and you need to know that this chief will not back down. Jason, my friend, you may relax. We have it in hand from here. Amy, his wife, and their two sons, Parker, 6, and Hunter, 7, continue to live." He paid the ultimate sacrifice doing what he loved, being a police officer," McCubbin continued.