My understanding is that the guard was fired for negligence. If he had actually helped the guy escape, he’d be facing felony charges. But that’s only from what I read in initial reports.
I’m sure they’re working on that, and we’ll find out if that is indeed the case.
The thought of a police Chihuahua is frankly terrifying.
You beat me to it!
Just wear tall leather boots like they do in snake country and you’re good. An attack chihuahua can tear hell outta your unprotected toes. They’re not great jumpers. Although the yapping would get on the suspect’s nerves and they’d probably surrender not long after the dog was taken out of the car, just to enjoy some silence in jail.
The chihuahuas I know are very good leapers. Close to 4 feet.
Yeah, I think most dogs have close to four feet.
He has said his plan was to carjack a vehicle and head to Canada. I don’t think a vehicle is that hard to track unless you know someplace to hide out with one. His actual best bet would be someone in the area willing to hide him for a while and eventually provide him with a vehicle. His plan to go to Canada might be after he got wind that they were expecting him to head to Mexico. Don’t know if there was a radio in the van he stole for him to hear the news.
The disadvantage of chihuahuas as police dogs is that the miscreant has a number of defensive options that don’t work against a fine K9 like Yoda. One is to neutralize the animal by stepping on it. Another is to pretend it’s a football and use it to score an imaginary 50-yard field goal.
But I agree with @LSLGuy that the yipping would drive anyone insane and cause many fugitives to surrender in despair. My neighbour had one of those – not a chihuahua but some tiny ball of fuzz with both the inclination and capability for intense yipping. The mere movement of air molecules seemed to distress it. I confess that the 50-yard field goal imagery went through my mind often. I don’t know what happened to it but I suspect someone finally shot it, possibly the owner himself. 
I heard the part about Mexico, and then trying to get back to his native Brazil. Going to Canada would have made no sense. He’d have been as easily captured in Canada as anywhere in the US, and quickly extradited.
We have very fine police officers here, too. We also have laws (common in other areas, too) that consider any attempted harm to a police dog to be chargeable as an assault on a police officer.
No taxpayer dollar that ends up in a cop’s pocket is ever considered wasted.
I’m sure the victim’s sister and children are breathing easier. I’m glad nobody got hurt but the guy who deserved it. Who’s a good boy?
A Dachshund would do better. They’re bred to hunt badgers in tight quarters, and the ones I’ve been acquainted with unanimously had a voice and an attitude 10x the actual size of the dog.
This was from his interview after capture. I doubt he could make it to either border without being caught. Maybe he’s trying to coverup some plan he had made with his sister or others, but I think he’s just not all that bright.
My feeling too. He may not have realized that the US-Canada border anywhere near Pennsylvania is pretty much a water crossing, and so he’d need to hit a bridge across the Niagara River, where Customs always is. Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) works with US federal and state authorities if anybody tries to “escape to Canada,” and he would have been caught as soon as he pulled up to the Canada Customs post at a bridge crossing.
The only alternative he had would have been to take a boat across Lake Erie, but there are no ferries, and unless he managed to steal a sailboat and actually knew how to sail it, he would have been unsuccessful. The Coast Guard, US or Canadian, as applicable, would have helped him if he ran into trouble on the lake, but would have immediately taken him into custody.
TL, DR: If he had not been caught in the US, he would have been caught in Canada. Which would have sent him back to the US to face justice. Canada would not be the haven he thought it might be.
There are narrower crossings than Lake Erie, although not as direct access. A kayak and some luck will get you across the Detroit River, for example. But I really don’t feel inclined to get into detail about how to cross that border in an illegal manner.
I suppose it’s possible to escape into Canada, then re-enter the US at a different point along that border then make your way down to Mexico, but it would have taken someone a lot more clever (and likely less hunted and more able to stay under the radar) than this guy.
Just for fun, yesterday my friend and I visited the spot where he was captured. People there are still adjusting to being famous.
Perfect! There are a several such animals in my building and one down the hall. I’m attempting to get management to address it, but that’s a slow process.
Anti-yipping sentiments and countermeasures are fine with me. To paraphrase Dave Barry, any animal not large enough to knock you down and lick your face while clearing the entire coffee table with one sweep of its mighty tail has no right to call itself a dog. I don’t know what it is that causes these tiny rat-like creatures to yip so much. I suspect some sort of canine insecurity, because deep down in their tiny hearts they know they’re not real dogs.