A police K-9 in Massachusetts helped reunite a missing nonverbal boy with autism with his family, after he escaped their home through a first-floor window.
According to a press release from the Milford Police Department, at approximately 3:58 p.m. on Monday, April 28, the Milford Public Safety Communications Center received a 911 call from a parent reporting that her 8-year-old son had gone missing.
Kimberly Rivera, the boy’s sister, told WCVB-TV that the window was “not even halfway open,” but using his strength, her brother “just opened the window fully.””Mom, his dad and myself, we were destroyed thinking the worst could have happened,” she said.
After receiving the call, patrol units scoured the area, including Milford Police K-9 Officer Brian Sanchioni and K-9 Titan.
Titan quickly began showing a “heightened interest in a long stream of water across the street from the caller’s residence,” according to the press release.
The K-9 followed the stream for approximately 600 feet and then jumped into the water to go underneath a small bridge where police say the missing child was found “clinging to a small tree on the bank of the pond.”
Sanchioni told WCVB-TV that they were able to find the boy after Titan began barking. As soon as the officer got to the location, the child was seen “partially submerged in the water up to his stomach.”
“He looked scared, he was holding onto a tree,” said Sanchioni. The boy was reunited with his mother before being taken to the Milford Regional Medical Center for a precautionary evaluation, per the press release.
Rivera said that as soon as she and her family were reunited with her brother, she “gave him the biggest hug.”
“I believe that without that dog we would not have been able to find my little brother,” she said, per WCVB-TV.
Chief of Police Robert Tusino said in a press statement that the department is “grateful for a quick and positive outcome.”
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“This speaks to the invaluable nature of resources like the K-9 unit. With more, we’re able to do more. My hats off to K-9 Officer Sanchioni, K-9 Titan and all the other units that responded to help this family in their dire hour,” his statement said.
PEOPLE reached out to the Milford Police Department for comment.
