'I'll miss him:' Largo Police officer remembers K9 after dog dies

LARGO, Fla. - The expression "man’s best friend" couldn’t be truer when it came to Officer Patrick Newbill and his K9, Murphy.

"He gave me a lot of memories, and he hasn’t even been gone 24 hours yet," Newbill said.

Officer Newbill had to say goodbye to his partner in the Largo Police Department of nine years, and his best friend of even longer, Monday. Murphy was 13 years old. 

"I'll miss him, miss waking up in the morning and falling over top of him or seeing him lay out by the pool and going for our car rides together. But he got a lot of it. So, I’m very happy, very blessed that we had the last few days we knew we had together," Newbill said.

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Newbill said Murphy, who retired in 2021, had more than 100 arrests under his collar, and helped detain more than 650 suspects. In a specific call, he remembers Murphy found a gun Newbill said a DUI crash suspect had ditched.

"Murphy located it, literally dug it out of the ground, and the gun actually had a round in the chamber and the safety was off. So, it would have been a matter of time before a couple good rainstorms washed the mulch from above it. And, you know, being at that intersection with the playground, the park and the schools around, someone could have come across it that shouldn't have and something really unfortunate could have happened. And I attribute him finding that gun on his own to removing that literally from the street," Newbill said.

Murphy went with Newbill on everything from missing persons calls to welfare checks to serving search warrants. Murphy was also certified to search for narcotics.

"He just had all the aspects that you need. He was very high driven, athletic, but didn't have that extra crazy gene. He could be very stoic when needed. His focus level was something that I admired in him, that I saw he had kind of a leg up on other dogs was just his focus with me. We became very in sync together," he said.

Murphy also did countless K9 demonstrations at schools and at various programs for the city.

"He has just always been a great dog for that. So, super social. I can have kids come up and pet them one at a time and take him to work that night and have to catch somebody with the same dog. He just knows the difference. He knew the difference," Newbill said.

Murphy was Newbill’s first police K9, and said he loved work.

"He’s jumping up and down and going crazy when it’s time for me to put my uniform on and him to put his uniform on and get in the car," he said.

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"For police dogs, your average career time frame is about five to seven years, but he was healthy and successful, so they really didn't have a reason for him to retire. So, he worked nine years and retired at ten and a half years old. So, I was very fortunate to have him for such a long time, and he created some big shoes to fill for the dog I have now, and he's doing great, but you just never forget your first dog," Newbill said.

Murphy was also one of 40 police dogs nationwide chosen to compete on the show ‘America’s Top Dog.’ More than anything, though, Newbill said, he was family.

"You can’t create that personality in the dog. That’s special to them. Just like people, they all have their own personalities, and he was a good one," Newbill said.

Murphy’s name will be etched in the canine memorial at Largo Central Park along with the other police K9s who’ve passed away.

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