‘She was my best friend’ | Monroe County family questions neighbor’s shooting of their dog

What This Story Is About

• A Monroe County family is still trying to find answers after their neighbor shot and killed their dog.

Why It Matters

• The family is distraught after losing their dog, with their daughter noting that the dog was her best friend.

What Happens Next

• Cook faces criminal charges. The Watkins family is also looking at a civil case against him. His arraignment hearing is scheduled for next week.

For Context

• The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says Nicholas Cook shot the Watkins family dog, named Briar, three times, killing the animal.

MONROE COUNTY, Tenn. (WVLT) - A Monroe County family is still trying to find answers after their neighbor shot and killed their dog.

The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says Nicholas Cook shot the Watkins family dog, named Briar, three times, killing the animal.

Sydni Watkins, Briar’s owner, said the dog was especially close with her daughter, Hadley Haynes.

“Briar was the sweetest and goofiest dog I’ve ever met,” Sydni Watkins said.

“She played with my daughter. She followed my daughter. She followed my daughter everywhere,” Sydni Watkins said.

“She was a really good dog and she was my best friend,” Hadley Haynes said.

Briar was in the yard, with Hadley outside as well, when the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office says Cook, the Watkins’ neighbor, shot Briar three times, killing the dog.

Sydni Watkins said she and her husband confronted Cook afterwards.

“We were both distraught. We were both yelling. I’m not going to say we weren’t because we were pretty tore up and we asked him why he would do that and he said that she was outside near his chicken coop,” Sydni Watkins said.

Cook told Monroe County deputies the dog was chasing his chickens. Deputies say they saw security video showing the dog licking a pan on Cook’s property, but not near the chicken coop.

Sydni Watkins said Cook later changed his response.

“He just threw up his hands and said ‘well I didn’t know it was your dog’,” Sydni Watkins said.

Cook was arrested and charged with knowingly killing an animal. He has since been released from jail.

“It’s just really hard and it’s hard to live next to him everyday and have to see him everyday and not be able to do anything about it,” Sydni Watkins said.

The Watkins family said they are now adjusting to life without Briar.

“He took a lot of life out of our home when he took her away from us and it feels a whole lot emptier now. She was a good dog,” Sydni Watkins said.

Sydni Watkins said the deputy who responded to the call returned a day later to give Hadley a stuffed animal.

Cook faces criminal charges. The Watkins family is also looking at a civil case against him. His arraignment hearing is scheduled for next week.