Gastonia Police’s only female K9 handler tracks robbery suspect

GASTONIA, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) – A Gaston County man is in custody after Gastonia Police said he and another suspect robbed a gas station and led officers on a mile-long search.

It took about 30 minutes for GPD Officer Nikki Warlick and her K9 Ozzy to track the suspect, Bryant Eaves, 24. They found him at a home under construction and concealed behind wires, duct work and insulation.

Their teamwork got the job done.

“We’ve been together for a year and we’ve been on the road about seven months,” said Warlick.

Most officers work in pairs, and Warlick’s partner happens to have four legs.

“He just wants to work,” she said.

Warlick has been a K9 officer for almost a decade, but she says Ozzy is her best dog yet.

“I get to work with him every day and tell him all my problems, hahaha,” she laughs.

Their work isn’t normally fun and games.

“He’s leading me to the bad but he’s also protecting me because he’s the first one out there,” said Warlick.

Earlier this week, the duo went on a mission to find one of the people responsible for an armed robbery at a Circle K gas station. The search took them through woods and briers, over fences and to a home on Little Rock Street where they eventually found the suspect.

“Ozzy took me right to him,” said Warlick.

While the K9 is very impressive, so is his handler. Warlick is the only female K9 officer for the Gastonia Police Department and was the first one in the entire county.

“I really don’t look at it that way,” she said. “I feel like I’m one of the guys. I love my job every day.”

Warlick feels lucky to have a team that accepts her, and she hopes other women and girls who see this know they can work toward any job they want, too.

“Just because you’re a female, don’t let somebody tell you that you can’t do it because I go out here every day and work circles around some of the men at our agency,” she said.

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