The first Vancouver police dog killed in the line of duty will have a street named after him.

Valiant was shot during the arrest of a prison escapee in 1967, and later died of his injuries.

Council is expected to approve a recommendation to name a new road connecting East 1^st Avenue and Graveley Street as Valiant Street.

A staff report on the naming of the new street is included in the agenda Tuesday (December 12) of council.

Valiant Street is near the current offices of the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) at 3585 Graveley Street.

Established in 1957, the Vancouver police canine unit is the oldest in Canada.

The canine unit currently has 15 dog teams.

Eight police service dogs have died in the line of duty.

The VPD honours its deceased dogs with a dedicated page about them on its website.

Here’s the story of Valiant as told by the force:

“At 8:45 a.m. on December 18, 1967, Constable Mike Wellman and his dog Valiant of the Vancouver Police Canine Unit were dispatched to an apartment at 1460 Nelson Street to assist in the apprehension of a prison escapee who had stated that he would not be taken alive.

The wanted man, Joseph McKenna, 32, was known to be armed. He had been serving a life sentence for murder after shooting a man four times in a nightclub argument. Police had received information of the escapee's location and had surrounded the apartment. Officers at the scene called for the man to surrender and kicked open the door. They were answered by two shots fired from a bedroom. The shots entered a doorjamb inches from the officers. Police fired a shotgun blast into the room.

Immediately Police Dog Valiant was released and bounded into the room after the gunman. The man was hiding under a bed and, as the dog pounced, he fired a shot which caused Valiant to yelp with pain.

Wellman called the dog to heel and obediently Valiant returned to his master and sat waiting for the next command. Police again called on McKenna to surrender. He called out that he was giving up and did so meekly. He later told police that he would never have surrendered if it wasn't for the fact that he was scared that the dog would come in again. Police at the scene were not immediately aware that the dog had been shot. Valiant's thick coat hid the bullet wound and there was not much external bleeding.

As the prisoner was being taken out to a police car, Valiant stood guard and it was then that Wellman noticed that his dog was bleeding from the stomach. He was rushed to a veterinary hospital but the wound was serious having punctured a lung, liver, kidney and intestine. Valiant died of his injuries after a three-hour operation.”