Police Sgt. Marc Wilbur died about 8:30 a.m. Thursday at the Winn Dixie shopping plaza, said Avon Park Police Cmdr. Mike Rowan on Friday.
Wilbur began his shift at 6 a.m. Thursday. The cause of Wilbur's death will be announced later.
The Avon Park Police Department is preparing a news release with additional information that should be available about noon today, said Rowan.
Funeral information should be available later in the afternoon, Rowan said.
In 2006, Wilbur and his 7-year-old K-9 partner Ivan were officially declared the cream of the crop, after beating out more than 50 other K-9 teams from across the country.
K-9 teams from as far away as the Bahamas trained and competed in Daytona from Nov. 6-10, 2006 in an annual Bomb and Narcotics Detection Seminar. At that time Wilbur was a 19-year police officer and Ivan was a four-year veteran.
In 2004 Wilbur and Ivan took second place in the National Drug Detection Seminar, put on by the Southern Hills Kennels, Inc., in Daytona.
Prior to handling Ivan, Wilbur handled a well known K-9 partner named Sando, who had many arrests to his credit.
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