Dog stabbed to death owned by soldier

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (WDEF) — A Chattanooga man is behind bars after allegedly stabbing a dog to death Tuesday afternoon.

Theresa Daniels has been looking for her son’s lost dog since Monday. Wednesday morning, she went to McKamey, hoping she would find him there. Instead, officials told her that her son’s German Shepard Bo had been stabbed to death.

“It shouldn’t have happened. I was hoping he would’ve come on back, but he didn’t,” Daniels said, crying.

Daniels was taking care of Bo for her son, Army National Guardsman Davaughn Hambright. She had been watching him for nine months, her son just recently coming back from deployment.

She said she let Bo outside as normal Monday morning, but she feara Monday’s heavy rains scared him away.

“I usually hear a knock on the door when he’s ready to come in, but there was no knock,” Daniels said “There was a lot of rain, so I kind of figured he got spooked or something. He just took off. I thought, maybe he’ll come on back. When the rain stops, he’ll come on back.”

Instead Bo wandered down to the 2700 block of Glass Street where he allegedly met 20-year-old Cameron Jeffries.

Witnesses said Jeffries came up to them on the porch, asking for a cigarette. There, Bo walked up to them and Jeffries.

As Jeffries began to leave, witnesses said he warned the dog he would stab him if he followed Jeffries up the street.

A short time later, they heard a dog’s yelp, and 11-month-old Bo came back to the porch with two stab wounds.

McKamey Animal Center officers responded, and Bo died en route to the hospital.

“I thought maybe the dog was at the neighbor’s house, and they were watching him until I got back or something. I didn’t think this would happen,” Daniels said.

“I never have an explanation for the horrible things that are done to animals. And sometimes it’s just so random,” McKamey’s Director of Field Services Tiffany Newcomb said.

But Daniels and her son want answers.

“I would like to know why. I know still it’s a dog, but it’s a life.”

This isn’t the first time Jeffries has been arrested. In 2017, he was charged with aggravated robbery after mugging an 87-year-old man at a gas station on Wilcox Boulevard. He also faces drug charges from earlier this month.

He’s currently in the Silverdalw Detention Center being held on a $10,000 bond for this aggravated cruelty to animals case.