EPHRATA — Grant County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Deputy Edo passed away last week, and he is sorely missed, said Sheriff Joey Kriete. 

“He was a very personable dog,” Kriete said. “He was kind of our poster child, if you will, for our K-9 program because he was so social. He would always greet everybody in the office. We all loved Edo.” 

Edo, a Belgian Malinois from the Netherlands, joined the GCSO as a 2-year-old in 2017, according to Columbia Basin Herald archives. He was the third K-9 officer attached to the GCSO. 

“Edo was a great K-9,” the GCSO wrote in a statement announcing Edo’s passing. “He won the hearts of the good people he met and caused bad guys to think twice about not surrendering. When not wearing his ‘game face’ and flying through the air, Edo was a big puppy (a big, muscular puppy) that loved belly rubs, our staff, and MACC dispatchers.” 

Upon his recruitment, Edo was assigned to then-Deputy Tyson Voss, who served as his handler until Edo’s retirement in 2023. After retirement, Edo continued to live with Voss and his family, the GCSO wrote. 

Eleven is a respectable age for a Belgian Malinois. A healthy Malinois can live between 10 and 14 years, according to the medical website WebMD. Law enforcement dogs often have a shorter life expectancy than other dogs of their breed, said GCSO Public Information Officer Kyle Foreman, which is why they retire when they do. 

“They’ll get to a point where they start having medical issues, or if they’re older, they’ll start having mobility issues,” Foreman said. “They’ll start developing tumors, things that dogs develop as they get older. In some cases, the aging is accelerated with police dogs because of the nature of the work that they’re expected to do… We don’t want to push the K-9s if they’re starting to slow down.” 

Two other K-9 deputies, Hawk and Chewbacca, retired at about the same time as Edo, leaving the GCSO with only two police dogs, Foreman said. K-9 Malie is assigned to Deputy Zane Bundy, and K-9 Storm is assigned to Deputy Gunnar Hinds. The GCSO is working on getting a drug-detecting K-9 for the Grant County Jail, Foreman added. 

Voss, who is now with the Washington State Patrol, and Edo were a good fit, Kriete said. 

“They were a phenomenal team,” he said. “Their personalities were perfect because they were both jovial … If you could have hand-picked a partner for Tyson and a partner for Edo, that was the perfect match.” 

    K-9 Edo, with the help of his handler, then-Deputy Tyson Voss, left, and Moses Lake Industries President Hiroyuki Era, demonstrates how a police dog captures a suspect shortly before Edo’s retirement in 2023.
  

    As frightening as he could be to the bad guys, K-9 Edo was always up for a belly rub at the station. He was loved by the entire Grant County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Joey Kriete said.