K-9 Officer Peter John "Sonny" Burke Atlantic City Police Department October 1, 1970 K-9 Officer Peter John "Sonny" Burke, 26, was just minutes away from the end of his shift late on a Wednesday night when he was struck down by a shotgun blast after he stopped two suspicious males on North Illinois Avenue. The pair was planning to hold up a nearby club and one of the suspects had a sawed-off shotgun. Burke, a fifteen-year veteran, was a member of Atlantic City's original K-9 corps. His K-9 partner Thor witnessed the killing from inside the patrol car.  The killer was finally brought to justice twenty years later. Burke was survived by his wife, Marie. Close Window