A police dog shot this year during a standoff in Aroostook County was honored with a memorial in the town where he was killed.
On Feb. 3, dozens of law enforcement units converged on the town when gunman Steven Righini holed up in an apartment with his infant daughter. During an hours-long standoff during which he fired multiple shots, Righini fled, shooting Deputy Shane Campbell, who survived, and state police dog Preacher. Police fatally shot Righini.
Preacher was taken for emergency veterinary care, but later died from his wounds.
The incident left the lakeside community of about 360 residents shaken. Such things “really don’t happen here,” a resident said a couple of weeks later.
“After K-9 Preacher lost his life, we decided that the small town of Portage needed to have some recognition of the sacrifice [he] gave,” organizer Sarah Brooks said.
Brooks and fellow committee members Tracy Snow-Cormier and Kathy Hoppe launched a fundraising campaign that netted $3,600 in donations for a granite tribute bench. They worked with the Central Aroostook Kennel Club and the Portage Lake Historical Society, both nonprofit organizations, to collect the funds.
The dog was shot just 450 feet from the park, in an area behind nearby railroad tracks, Snow-Cormier said.
It’s the second Aroostook County tribute to the dog. The Can-Am Crown International 250 Sled Dog Race goes through the town, close to where Preacher was shot, Hoppe said. At this year’s race, Maine State Police Lt. Brian Harris gave each musher a purple rose, and at the end of the race the roses were added to a vase in Preacher’s honor.
The new Portage installation includes the bench, a granite marker signifying Preacher’s end of watch and photographs of the dog with his partner and handler, state police Sgt. Jonathan Russell.
Following a parade on Sunday to mark Portage’s Summer Round-Up, a crowd of law enforcement officers, including Russell, town officials and community members filled the town’s veterans park for the official unveiling.
About 41 people and organizations contributed, covering the cost of the bench, and Aroostook Monuments donated the granite marker, Brooks said.
The state police’s Harris expressed gratitude for the community’s support. Preacher came to the tactical team from the Connecticut Department of Agriculture in 2022, he said. The dog was part of a seizure from an animal cruelty investigation, and had come to the U.S. from somewhere in Europe.
Harris and state police officer Josh Haines, an Ashland native, then unveiled a granite bench with the canine unit emblem and Preacher’s photo, engraved with the statement, “In honor of K-9 Preacher, who was killed in the line of duty protecting the people of Portage Lake.”
“Preacher was not just a dog. He lived to protect Cpl. Russell and the others on the tactical team, and tragically, on that night, he gave his life in order to fulfill that mission,” Harris said. “May this bench you see here today always remind you that there is no greater love or service than giving your life for that of another.”
A similar memorial bench was installed in June at the state police barracks in Gray.
