May 16 events honor Seara’s fitness, K-9 loves

Ami Miller only donned a bite suit once to help Seara Burton and her K-9, Brev, train. She won’t be in the bite suit May 16, but somebody will be for the Seara’s Legacy K-9 Trials.

“That is one of my greatest memories of her and Brev with me,” Miller said of the one-off training experience.

For the first time, two events remembering Burton, the Richmond Police Department K-9 officer who died Sept. 18, 2022, after she was shot more than a month earlier, will take place together. The 140 Challenge, which recalls Burton’s love of fitness, and the K-9 Trials, which remembers her passion for K-9 handling, will both be May 16 at the Wayne County Fairgrounds.

“This is how we want to honor her every year to keep her legacy and memory alive,” said Miller, who is married to Burton’s mother, Jennifer.

The 140 Challenge — named for Burton’s badge number — begins with a 5-kilometer race at 8 a.m., then continues with a fitness challenge with 140 reps each of sit-ups, squats, push-ups and lunges. 

“Seara was a big fitness lover,” said Miller, a longtime RPD officer who has retired and joined the Reid Health Police Department. “She loved to work out.”

The K-9 events, basically an Olympics for K-9s and their handlers, will begin at noon. The teams will compete in open area search, vehicle search, obedience and hard dog/fast dog. The latter, which concludes the events, is where the bite suit enters, judging the K-9s on how fast and hard they attack.

Entry fees for the events raise money for the K-9 Officer Seara Burton Foundation. The foundation assists police departments purchasing K-9s or equipment to keep dogs and handlers safe. Miller said the foundation has already helped law enforcement in Gas City and Fayette County.

“She was a very, very humble, giving, kind person, and we feel giving back in this manner is what she would have wanted,” Miller said.

The fitness challenge and K-9 events are open to the public and are free. Food trucks will be on site throughout the day, and Miller urges community members to attend at least for a little while in Burton’s honor. Miller said Brev will attend, and there’s a surprise brewing for Brev and those in attendance.

Burton spent four years as an RPD officer, quickly identifying her love of the K-9 unit, attending their training sessions and fully dedicating herself to becoming a K-9 officer, Miller said. Burton reached that goal with Brev in April 2022, and they worked together confiscating illegal narcotics.

Brev had indicated the presence of a narcotics odor from a scooter that RPD officers had stopped on North 12th Street when Burton was shot Aug. 10, 2022.

“It’s everything, just due to the fact we lost her,” Miller said about what the fitness challenge and K-9 events mean to Burton’s family. “It’s important to keep her memory alive. It’s important that people remember the sacrifice she made for the community and to keep people safe.”