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Citrus K-9 Recovering After Stabbing; Attacker Killed By Deputy

News Channel 8 photo by RUGENE MOORE

Citrus County sheriff's deputies investigate a deputy-involved shooting that left a man dead Monday morning.

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TBO.com

Published: March 23, 2009

Updated: 03/23/2009 11:04 am

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Mito

A man stabbed a police dog and then attacked Citrus County sheriff's deputies before he was shot to death early this morning.

The man's name is being withheld pending notification of next of kin.

The dog, Mito, is expected to make a full recovery. No one else was injured in the incident, which closed U.S. 19 in Crystal River for several hours.

Deputies said the man was jumping in and out of traffic on U.S. 19 and brandished a large knife when they confronted him.

Deputies released Mito, a German shepherd, to help apprehend the man. The man stabbed Mito and then charged deputies.

Deputy Todd Cridland fired the shot that killed the man, the sheriff's office said. He has been placed on paid administrative leave, standard procedure after a deputy-involved shooting.

Cridland was hired in 1999 and first worked as a dispatcher in the sheriff's office communications center. He became a deputy in 2004.

Mito underwent emergency surgery at the Dunnellon Animal Hospital. The dog suffered a deep stab wound that came within a half-inch of his heart.

Mito was born in 2004 and purchased from the Netherlands in 2006, the sheriff's office said. He has been a law enforcement dog for three years.

Deputies said they had encountered the man earlier in the evening, but he did not appear to be a threat to himself or others.

Evidence collected at the scene includes the large fixed-blade knife used to stab Mito and an open pocketknife, investigators say.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement is investigating the shooting.

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