Suspect takes police dog over 200-foot bridge

updated 12:50 p.m. ET Jan. 1, 2008

CORONADO, Calif. - A man being chased by authorities grabbed a police dog and leaped off the San Diego-Coronado Bridge, taking the animal with him into the frigid ocean water 200 feet below.

The fall killed the dog. The fugitive survived and was hospitalized Tuesday.

The pursuit began Monday evening after an Oceanside police officer saw the man driving a GMC pickup erratically on a road. The officer, accompanied by a German shepherd named Stryker, ordered the driver to stop but he refused, California Highway Patrol Officer Larry Landeros said.

The man, whose name was not immediately released, led police on a chase through a section of Interstate 5 and onto the bridge, where he stopped and the officer released Stryker.

“The dog actually took the driver to the ground and then he actually lifted the dog up and jumped over the side,” CHP Sgt. Steven Toth said.

The man was rescued from the water and taken to a hospital, Toth said. His condition was not released. An after-hours call to a hospital representative was not immediately returned.

The dog's body was recovered from the water, Toth said.

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