By Della Hasselle
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
MANHATTAN — A beloved canine companion and NYPD detective dog that helped track down two cop killers passed away on Saturday, police officials said.
Scooby, a bloodhound that was bred in North Carolina and trained to hunt down criminals, died in his sleep at the age of 10, according to reports.
The dog helped sniff out suspects in Pocono Township, Penn., who were wanted in the 2007 shooting of NYPD officer Russel Timoshenko, police said.
Suspects Dexter Bostic and Robert Ellis were tracked down by Scooby, six other police dogs and nearly 300 officers after an interstate chase and manhunt through the forests of the Poconos, the New York Daily News reported.
Bostic and Ellis were pulled over at a traffic light in Brooklyn after driving in a stolen BMW, the paper reported. Timonsheko was shot in the face and his partner injured in the 2007 shooting.
The suspects, both 34 at the time, managed to get out of the city and as far as Pennsylvania before they were tracked down in one of the largest manhunts in recent history.
Bostic was convicted of murder in Dec. 2008 and sentenced to life. Ellis was sentenced to 15 years for weapons possession.
The cause of Scoopy's death was not disclosed by police.