Montville ― Several local police officers attended a memorial ceremony Saturday in Washington, D.C., that honored police K-9 Barrett and 25 others from around the country killed in the line of duty last year.

Lt. David Radford wrote in an email Monday that the annual ceremony, which is called the National Police K-9 Memorial Service, was touching and “brought a tear to your eye.”

Barrett, the six-year partner of Montville K-9 Officer Daniel Witts, was euthanized last June after battling brain bleeds and seizures that police said stemmed from being attacked by a suspect on Dec. 11, 2021.

Witts, whose new police K-9 “Sig” graduated from state police K-9 training in December, had recalled in January that Barrett had consumed his whole life, and he’d felt empty after Barrett died. Witts could not be reached for comment Monday, but did attend the ceremony.

He joined other K-9 handlers, including Trooper First Class Ronnell Higgins, whose K-9 Broko was shot and killed in Pawcatuck last December, in laying roses on the ground in memory of their former partners. It was followed by a salute.

Another K-9 handler who laid a rose was Deputy Zach Oliver, of the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado. Delivering a eulogy, Oliver recalled the loss he’d felt when his K-9 partner, Graffit, was struck by gunfire and killed last February while apprehending a suspect near the Colorado School of Mines campus.

“We spend more time with our four-legged partners than we do with our kids or our spouses,” he said. “They’re a huge part of our lives, both on-duty and off-duty.”

He added that every K-9 handler whose K-9 was honored at the ceremony knows how painful it is to lose the K-9 with whom that bond is shared.

“Your best friend, and greatest partner you’ve ever had leaves this world,” Oliver said.

The ceremony, which Radford said drew hundreds of people, is held annually by nonprofit National Police Dog Foundation, which helps fund K-9 units for law enforcement agencies, and to provide medical services to those agencies. He said organizations like that one do a “great job to help memorialize our fallen.”

“I can tell you that it means everything to the men and women of the Montville Department ...,” he added. “The support and presence of law enforcement from across the country and world even, was amazing to see.”

d.drainville@theday.com