Page 7 - Mid Valley Times 1-6-22 E-Edition

Thursday, January 6, 2022
The View From Here
Juanita Adame
A year in review, looking back at 2021
Local police K9’s have been in the news quite a bit this week.
Let me begin with a story I cov- ered for the tv station on the first day of the year.
We were told there was a man barricaded inside a home near the Tower Dis- trict in Fresno. We arrived at the location and yes, the man had locked himself in- side the home and refused to come out for officers.
They tried everything and still the man refused. After about 8 hours of try- ing to negotiate with the man, officers decided to “disengage” from the situ- ation since no one was re- ally in harms way, and left the area. No arrests were made.
The following day, the man left to his grandmoth- ers house on Maple and American Avenues. Po- lice followed him to that location to arrest him and that's where things went bad. The man walked to- ward officers refusing to take his hands out of his pockets.
Before any shots were fired at the man, police decided to deploy a 3-year- old, Belgian Malanois named Cyra. She is 3 years old, (still a baby in my eyes) but capable of doing her job and doing it well. According to the depart- ment, she has been work- ing with the Fresno County Sheriff's Office K9 unit for a little over a year.
Cyra was deployed and the man began to stab her. Police then opened fire on the man, critically wound- ing him. Thankfully, Cyra is recovering from her in- juries. A few days before that incident, I reached out to Reedley Police Sgt. Je- sus Rivera.
Rivera is the K9 handler to Leo. Leo is a lot older than Cyra. I had the plea- sure of having Leo bark at me from the back of his pa- trol car several times and scaringmehalftodeath. I was able to coax him with a treat and he [somewhat] liked me after that.
Leo has been with the Reedley Police Depart- ment for 8 years. During that time he’s been a cru- cial part of taking down criminals and finding nar- cotics.
The department an- nounced that Leo would be retiring on the first of the year. Congratulations to Leo. I wish him all the best in his post law enforce- ment life and wish Cyra a speedy recovery.
June 2021 - Graduations return
File Photo / Mid Valley Times
Reedley High School students sat at Sal Gonzalez field on the eve- ning of May 28 to participate in their in person graduation cer- emony.
FilePhoto /MidValleyTimes
A group of Sanger High graduates lined up inside Tom Flores sta- dium before walking onto the field for the school's live graduation event on the evening of June 11. The school's graduation ceremony was broken up into a two day event to accommodate families and students.
July 2021
File Photo / Mid Valley Times
Sweet Girl Farms owner Liset Garcia poured a glass of agua fresca for a customer. Garcia was featured in a Los Angeles TImes article to talk about the impact of the drought and how she kept her busi- ness alive.
September 2021
File Photo /Mid Valley Times
DInuba High School students celebrated their in person gradua- tion ceremony on May 27.
File Photo /Mid Valley Times
Orosi High School students sat at the Ed Coats field on the evening of June 3 to participate in their live graduation ceremony.
August 2021
File Photo / Mid Valley Times
In person instruction returned to Kings Canyon Unified School District. Alana Woodin, Activities Director at Orange Cove High School spoke to students and staff on the morning of Aug. 11 duringtheschool's BacktoSchoolrally.
Photo of the Week
Contributed
This photo Henry Rojas celebrating his 97th birthday was sentinbyLauraLovett.HappyBirthdayHenry! Haveaphoto you'd like featured? Email juanita@midvalleypublishing.com.
File Photo / Mid Valley Times
Local first responders from a variety of agencies gathered on the anniversary of 9/11 at Immanuel Schools to remember the victims lost in the terror attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.