Mass Puppycide Ends Career Of Tennessee Deputy Who Probably Never Should Have Been A Cop

Cops just seem to love killing people’s pets. While this act is often “justified” by (often ridiculous) claims of “officer safety,” a whole lot of killing of people’s dogs seems to happen just because law enforcement officers have the means and the opportunity to carry this act out.

Nothing involving the killing of people’s dogs can be considered anomalous. The US Department of Justice pointed this out years ago, albeit not officially. In 2014, community-oriented-policing program head Laurel Matthews stated that cops are killing up to 30 pets a day, something she referred to as an “epidemic.”

If anyone wants to argue this estimate isn’t accurate, they’re free to do so. But it isn’t difficult to believe American law enforcement is capable of killing 30 pets a day across the nation, especially when there’s little reason for them not to shoot any animals they see while inviting themselves onto other people’s private property.

But most cops are willing to limit themselves to one or two killings per incident. Former Tennessee law enforcement officer Connor Brackin, however, decided he couldn’t call an end to this animal welfare visit until he’d personally killed all but one the animals he was supposed to be saving. (h/t Reason)

Conner Brackin, a 24-year-old police deputy with the McNairy County Sheriff’s Office, was arrested and charged with aggravated animal cruelty on Tuesday following an investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. On Nov. 4, Brackin responded to an “animal welfare concern” in Bethel Springs, a city located around 100 miles east of Memphis. According to the affidavit, Brackin spoke with the person who made the complaint about multiple dogs on the neighboring property, some in pens, some in two different trailers. Brackin released one of the dogs from a pen and then “loaded his service rifle and pistol and began firing into the campers at the dogs.”

He allegedly fired eight times, killing seven dogs.

That’s not insane. That’s pyschopathic, which is something else altogether. The owner of the dogs, Kevin Dismuke, didn’t know law enforcement was taking a look at his dogs until after Deputy Brackin had killed all but one of them. He was left to discover the fact on his own upon his return to his trailer, where he was greeted by one dead dog and then several others in quick succession.

The McNairy County Sheriff’s Office tried to spin this a bit:

The McNairy County Sheriff’s Office stated Brackin observed two dogs in “extremely poor health” and one was “already deceased.” After looking for the dogs’ owner, Brackin let a neighbor take one of the dogs and said that he had been “cleared to put down the remaining animals safely by my supervisor.”

But there’s no force behind these words, much less any real sincerity. The Sheriff’s Office doesn’t really think Deputy Brackin’s actions were justified. Nor does it care what the dogs’ owner thinks about this impromptu guns-out raid performed by the deputy.

We already know most law enforcement agencies are rarely sincerely concerned about the misery their officers cause. But we do know the Sheriff’s Office didn’t feel these actions were justified, otherwise it might have stepped in to protect one of its own before this happened:

On November 7^th, at the request of 25th Judicial District Attorney General Mark Davidson, TBI special agents began investigating the incident.  Agents subsequently developed information that on November 4th, the McNairy County Sheriff’s Department received an animal welfare concern call.  Deputy Connor Brackin (DOB: 07/26/2000) responded to the residence in the 8300 block of SR 199 in Bethel Springs, to check the condition of the dogs.  Bracken released one of the dogs to the complainant.  For reasons under investigation, he fired his duty weapon, shooting and killing seven dogs on the property.

On Tuesday, TBI agents obtained warrants for Brackin, charging him with seven counts of Aggravated Cruelty to Animals and eight counts of Reckless Endangerment.  Brackin turned himself in and was booked into the McNairy County Jail.

If the deputy felt his employer would have his back, he never would have turned himself in. If the Sheriff’s Office thought Deputy Brackin was worth keeping on staff, it would have acted on his behalf. And it certainly wouldn’t have accepted the 24-year-old officer’s resignation if it thought his actions were justified. The now-former deputy is on his own. And, on top of this, he’s feeling the weight of his (extremely short) law enforcement past being brought to bear.

[Brackin] graduated from the training academy in September 2022. In less than two years, his personnel file shows an administrative summons with allegations from two different shootings. A statement from a hearing in May 2024 says Brackin “did not shoot the subject and was merely returning fire to the area where he observed a muzzle flash and the sound of gunfire.” It was recommended he undergo remedial training.

The second incident, less than two months later, ended with someone dead. The TBI said the local district attorney called them in to investigate the shooting from March 2023.

In May 2024, the end of Brackin’s probationary period, “Chief Corley found it was in the best interest of the community, the City of Jackson, and the Jackson Police Department to not retain Officer Brackin as a police officer.” Brackin resigned a day later.

Getting canned less than two years in means someone is so bad at being a cop even cop shops won’t stick out their neck for him. Fortunately for bad cops, there’s always another cop shop willing to hire anyone to be a cop, especially if they’ve got any amount of experience under their belt.

But two years after this rescue from the pile of law enforcement rejects, Connor Brackin is once again jobless. Unfortunately for him, this second separation from the Thin Blue Line was voluntary and comes coupled with multiple criminal charges. Whatever comes out of this won’t keep Brackin from seeking law enforcement options in the future. But maybe… just maybe… it will prevent law enforcement agencies from hiring him.