A month later, fundraisers and news reports are still pouring in for Bruno, the Anaheim police K-9 severely wounded by gunfire after a deadly shootout between officers and Robert Moreno, Jr. A group calling itself “Dog Park for Chino Hills” held a “Breakfast for Bruno” event at Applebee's on Saturday that tallied up $3,000 in donations.
Not to be outdone, the Anaheim City Council, at the suggestion of Kris Murray, is getting in on the “Brunomania” bit. At this evening's meeting, council members will direct city staff to organize a committee to build a monument to Bruno at one of Anaheim's future dog park sites.
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As CBS2-LA reported in its dispatch from Chino Hills, all the money being raised around town isn't going to cover the K-9's medical bills; that's taken care of by the department's taxpayer-funded budget. The donated funds will instead help his handler, Officer R.J. Young, once the German shepherd officially retires.
No public funds are slated for the Bruno monument as of yet. A staff report shows that “community members, local businesses and non-profit organizations” are slated to take up the task of raising private donations. That should be the easy part, given the media being led by the leash into pumping up the police perro as law enforcement's Lassie.
The harder part comes in deciding what future dog park will have the honors. La Palma Park, which had a tent community of homeless people before a camping ban cleared them out last year, is being eyed with finalizing plans for a 1.2 acre dog park. Another possibility is an area near the Olive Hills Tennis Courts east of the 57 freeway.
Wherever the monument honoring Bruno and all Anaheim police K-9s ends up, one thing's for sure: the city's gone to the dogs!
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Gabriel San Román is from Anacrime. He’s a journalist, subversive historian and the tallest Mexican in OC. He also once stood falsely accused of writing articles on Turkish politics in exchange for free food from DönerG’s!