SAN DIEGO --
A San Diego Police Department dog has returned to duty after recovering from a gunshot wound sustained in a SWAT situation last year.
On Thursday, SDPD officer Mike McLeod ran Monty through his paces for the media to show how much he as recovered.
In late October, Monty almost died when he was shot in the snout during a Skyline-area SWAT operation. Veteran SDPD officer Christopher Wilson was shot and killed during the operation. Officers were serving a warrant at an apartment in Skyline when gunfire erupted. Two officers carried Wilson back out while McLeod and Monty slipped into another bedroom.
The memory of that night is still vivid for McLeod, who said, "I was lying right next to him. A lot of blood was being thrown around, it was all over me. [It was] getting harder and harder to stay there the longer I was there. Every minute seemed like a long, long time."
It took 16 minutes before firefighters could get a ladder up to the second-floor window, and McLeod said he wasn't leaving without his partner.
"I was able to get him close enough to me where I just reached him grabbed him. I simply picked him up, threw him on my shoulder and got out of there."
As he raced for the animal hospital, McLeod said his thoughts were also on Wilson, his friend and fellow officer.
"Every day I go down to Southeast [Divison], I think about Chris. Great guy, good friend of mine," McLeod said.
McLeod has served 24 years as a police officer and his wife asked if perhaps he should retire.
"I just don't want to go that way. Maybe it's a little macho cop thing, but I want to go when I want, not when somebody dictates when I go," he said.
He and Monty have already been back on the street. Last week, the pair helped clearing cars and buildings and also tracked down a suspect in National City.
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