Timothy James Tim Brackeen, a 38-year-old K-9 officer with the Shelby Police Department in North Carolina, was shot multiple times on September 10, 2016 while attempting to arrest a suspect near DeKalb and Gidney Streets. He was found by fellow officers moments after gunfire, taken to Cleveland Regional Medical Center and later transferred to Carolinas Medical Center, where he died on September 12, 2016.

Investigators identified 23-year-old Irving Fenner Jr. as the suspect wanted for armed robbery and kidnapping. Fenner was captured four days later by a SWAT team in Coventry, Rhode Island. During the arrest he had a gunshot wound to the left torso that officers say was inflicted by Brackeen during the initial confrontation; Fenner was treated at a local hospital and then extradited to North Carolina to face charges.

In October 2019 Fenner pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in Brackeen’s killing and received life without parole under a plea to avoid the death penalty. The department retired Brackeen’s K-9 partner, Ciko, who now lives with a trainer who knew him since puppyhood.

Did anyone in the Shelby area have contact with Officer Brackeen or remember him on duty?