State Police will hold ceremony to honor slain K-9 Frankie
State Police will celebrate the life of K-9 Frankie at an upcoming ceremony.
In a statement on Wednesday, police said a date for the event has not yet been finalized, as his partner, Sgt. David Stucenski, and family are mourning in private.
Frankie was taken to the Final Gift Pet Memorial Center in Cranston, R.I. Tuesday night with full honors, including a motorcade escort by human and canine law enforcement partners, with police officers and firefighters lining overpasses above the highway.
Frankie died after being shot during a standoff in Fitchburg Tuesday afternoon.
State Police K-9 dies after being shot during standoff in Fitchburg
A highly decorated police dog during his nine years with the Massachusetts State Police, Frankie was one of the first K-9s to join the State Police STOP Team’s tactical program and participated in hundreds of missions.
State Police Col. Christopher Mason said Frankie had “every trait we seek in a good law enforcement officer, canine or human: intelligence, immense courage, and dedication to protecting the public.”
Frankie and Stucenski were awarded the Medal of Valor in 2017 for apprehending a hit-and-run suspect who shot at them during a foot chase. In 2014, the pair won three awards from the United States Police Canine Association for evidence recovery, agility and other law enforcement skills.
They were recently honored for arresting an armed child pornography suspect who opened fire on them at a West Springfield Motel in 2019.
Frankie was the first Massachusetts State Police K-9 killed in the line of duty.
The suspect who shot him, 38-year-old Matthew Mack, died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Mason said.
Mack had been wanted on warrants related to a shooting earlier this month.
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