A police dog who rescued his human partner from a violent attack last year died Monday afternoon in the back of an overheated police car. Muleshoe Police Chief Don Carter said “Sandor,” a Belgian malinois, died when the air conditioning broke down in an older car that would have been retired in October. “Sandor has served us very well and regrettably it will be a setback to the department until we can provide for another dog,” Carter said. Carter said a new police dog will cost about $8,500, not counting the cost to train an officer to handle a new dog. The department may also buy a special alarm that would warn the canine officer if temperatures rise to dangerous levels in the car. Carter said keeping police dogs in the vehicle is standard procedure for Muleshoe and other police departments, but that’s only possible because the police officers keep the vehicle running with the air conditioner on. Monday’s temperature reached 106 degrees and Sandor’s handler, Officer Rodney Stevens, said he debated whether to bring Sandor to work at all. “I feel bad about this; I really thought about not taking him because it was so hot,” Stevens said. “This is still pretty frustrating to me.” Stevens said his car’s air conditioner was working at 5 p.m. when he went into the police station to do paperwork, but had stopped when he came out at 5:30 to check on Sandor. “He was completely down when I came out,” Stevens said. “I shook him, ran inside and got the chief, but there was nothing we could do for him.” Carter said Muleshoe provides its canine officer with a specially-equipped police car that has a dog kennel in the back seat and air conditioning to keep the temperature down. The air conditioner was last serviced a year ago and both Carter and Stevens said it had not been having problems until Monday’s breakdown. While Stevens took Sandor home at night and treated him as a family pet, Carter said it’s not always wise or even possible to take dogs into the police station or out on police calls. “The dog in the office is not conducive to an office environment,” Carter said. Carter said Stevens and the rest of the department had become quite attached to Sandor during more than two years as a canine officer — especially after Sandor attacked a group of people trying to attack Stevens last year. “(Stevens) was attempting to stop a vehicle that was fleeing; he apprehended the driver, the family came out, and several people attempted to interfere with that arrest,” Carter said. “Our cars are equipped with an electronic door opener, the dog came out, and in that case bit two different individuals, which prevented who knows what.” Having died in the line of duty, Sandor received a police funeral and was buried at the Muleshoe firing range. “We buried him out there on the hillside and they are going to get a plaque for him,” Stevens said. “During the ceremony nearly all of our officers showed up to show their support for me, Sandor, and my family. Most of the county sheriff’s deputies showed up also.” “ It’s like losing someone close in your family,” Stevens said. “You have to love animals in order to be a canine handler.”