Last Wednesday, 66-year-old Danny Brooks and his devoted dog, Bear, walked to Dillon’s Food Store as they would often do almost every morning.
“This was nothing more than getting a newspaper, walking the dog, and going back home,” Don Brooks, Danny’s younger brother, said.
Danny Brooks, unfortunately, never made it back to his house. He was killed and his dog injured during a fight outside of the grocery store.
According to police, Robert David, 54, told him that Bear did not belong inside the store.
The heated exchange escalated to the suspect pulling out a knife, stabbing the dog, then Danny.
David was arrested at the scene on animal cruelty charges and second-degree murder.
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“Danny being Danny would do everything in his power to protect his dog,” Don Brooks said, “and if it were a choice between Danny and his dog, he would have, which he did, given his life for his dog.”
Bear now keeps an eye over the staff at the Lawrence Humane Society while he recovers.
“He has had someone with him 24 hours a day, seven days a week for a good portion of his life, and so having things for him to watch and people to engage with him, I think is part of how we’ve helped sort of bridge some of that loss,” Shannon Wells, executive director of the Lawrence Humane Society, told KSHB 41 News on Wednesday.
The stab wound put the senior dog in shock. Once vets stabilized his vitals, they sedated and mended him.
