The Sydney Morning Herald reports that a three-year old German Shepherd police dog was fatally injured last Thursday while helping police arrest a Nazi sympathizer who was about go on a killing spree:

White supremacist Luke Curtis thought he was unstoppable - until he met Police Dog 33, a German shepherd known to his handler as Titan.

Curtis had told his girlfriend he would chop up two men with an axe to show her what he was really like. He then took an axe and threatened her father.

Early on Thursday he stepped out of his home in Barbara Boulevard, Seven Hills with a carving knife in each hand ranting neo-Nazi slogans.

The police had him surrounded and were prepared to do anything to bring him down without using bullets.

As the 23-year-old apprentice boilermaker approached the police line that had been placed around the house seven hours earlier, officers shot him with an electric charge from a dart gun. He kept coming and kept ranting.

Police shot him three times with a "bean bag" shot-gun.

But Curtis kept coming, and broke through the police line, still holding the knives.

Senior Constable Sean McDowell then set Titan on his heels. The three-year-old attack dog had served 18 months on the force and was a pet to Constable McDowell's two young children when kennelled at his home.

Titan chased Curtis for about 50 metres before biting into his left arm and forcing him to drop one of the knives. But Curtis plunged the other blade three times into Titan's chest.

By then police had caught up and managed to wrestle Curtis onto the road as he struggled and screamed. But the damage had been done. Titan was dying.

Titan's body will be sent to a taxidermist for preservation then put on display at the New South Wales Police Academy. In addition, Titan will have a memorial award named after him to be presented each year to the best handler and dog for outstanding police work.