Canine Officer Recovering After 14-Foot Fall Pursuing Suspect In Rogers

BROOKLYN PARK, Minn. (WCCO) -- An officer who took a 14-foot fall trying to catch a suspect Tuesday night is expected to make a full recovery.

Officer Mark Ploumen was released from the hospital Wednesday afternoon.

The Brooklyn Park canine officer was helping back up Rogers police as they were trying to find Matt Kaiser, wanted for assault out of Aitkin County. They had been scoping him out for days at this Rogers house.

Officer Ploumen and his dog, Ozzy, had just made the capture when a new drama unfolded. Officer Ploumen had just narrowed in on the suspect hiding in a pile of insulation in the rafters of an attic. His dog, Ozzy, had just found the suspect and boom, the officer took a tumble no one could have predicted.

For 11 years, these two were a team. Falco passed away in August, and Officer Ploumen had a new partner: Ozzy.

Deputy Chief Mark Bruley of the Brooklyn Park Police Department works with Officer Ploumen.

"He's a great handler, that's one of the reasons he is on his second dog," Bruley said.

Officer Ploumen and his pup, Falco, have received a list of honors over the past decade, including a Medal of Valor for catching a homicide suspect in 2011. He had recently started working with Ozzy.

"Mike is very, very well-liked. He gets along extremely well with everybody in the organization and it was evident about how many people showed up at the hospital and just couldn't stay away," Bruley said.

Before he was in the hospital, the officer was in the pitch of this attic in Rogers. He was one of several officers honing in on a 29-year-old suspect hiding in this house.

Ozzy sniffed out the suspect and Officer Ploumen moved in.

"Best we can recap is when he stepped in he must have stepped off, stepped on the rafter joist and stepped on the sheet rock and down he went," Bruley said.

He fell around 14 feet to the kitchen below, Bruley said.

"He sustained about a four-and-a-half inch laceration to the back of the head where his head had hit something when he had fallen and that's what rendered him unconscious," Bruley said.

Ozzy kept the suspect cornered and despite the fall, officers made the arrest.

"It's a reminder sometimes we think of officers being killed on duty or being shot, that's a real threat. But quite often officers are injured when they are asked to do things like this," Bruley said.

Officer Ploumen spent the night in the hospital.  He doesn't remember what happened but his friends say he's in good spirits.

He was spending the evening having some catch-up time with Ozzy.