Five suspects have been arrested in connection with a residential burglary of an occupied home in Burbank with help from the Burbank Police Department’s K-9 unit.
BPD responded to the burglary in progress in the 3600 block of Viewcrest Drive at about midnight on March 12.
Officers arrived on scene as the crime was still in process, according to the Burbank Police Department. Officers found two suspects seated in a getaway vehicle parked in front of the residence. The two were immediately taken into custody as three additional suspects, who were inside the residence, fled on foot into the surrounding neighborhood and hillside.
Police pursued the suspects, establishing a perimeter around the area with the assistance of a Pasadena Police helicopter and Glendale Police Department personnel. Police K-9 units from both GPD and BPD located the three fleeing suspects, but police said they refused to comply with commands from law enforcement.
The BPD currently has one canine named Rosco, a Belgian Malinois who patrols Burbank along with a canine handler.
“Police dogs are trained to search for hidden, fleeing suspects as well as evidence dropped or hidden by suspects,” police said.
The police K-9s bit the suspects before they were taken into custody, police said. The three suspects who were bitten were medically treated at the scene by Burbank Fire Department paramedics and transported to a hospital prior to being booked on charges of residential burglary.
The suspects have been identified as four Los Angeles residents between the ages of 19 and 21, and a 23-year-old resident of Moreno Valley.
“The Burbank Police Department wishes to thank our partners from the Glendale Police Department and Pasadena Police Department for their assistance in making these arrests,” stated police spokesman Sgt. Stephen Turner.
Formal charges of the five suspects are pending review by the L.A. County district attorney’s office.
First published in the March 16 print issue of the Burbank Leader.
