MAYNARDVILLE, Tenn. — The Maynardville Police Department welcomed a new K-9 into its ranks, donated to honor Tucker Blakely. He was a Knox County Sheriff's Office deputy who was fatally shot in October 2023 while responding to a domestic call.
His brother is the mayor of Maynardville, and Ty Blakely said seeing the new K-9 reminds of him Tucker. He was on the path toward becoming a K-9 officer handler before he was killed.
"To see Officer Foust and to see Charlie, it feels like a little bit of my brother's here," said Ty. "That is all he wanted to do. And from the time he joined Knox County as a jailer, then being promoted to patrol, all he talked about was K-9."
A community member donated Charlie and said she saw something special in him.
"It was selfish of me to want to keep him at my house just to be my personal dog when I know that he can do really good things for this community," said Candy Booker. "Seeing the things that go on in our community every day that the officers deal with, knowing that he could have been a help or maybe save a life, that was the deal breaker for me."
Charlie was paired with Sgt. Lawrence Foust, an officer with the Maynardville Police Department. He is the first K-9 in the police department.
"It's going to be the beginning of great things. I really do feel like it's a major asset to the community, to the department and just a great thing all around," said Foust.
Ty said Foust was exposed to fentanyl during a traffic stop around six months ago and believes that Charlie could have helped in the traffic stop.
"We're extremely lucky that Officer Foust is here," said Ty.
The new K-9 still needs to be trained and has some work to do before he can hit the streets. However, the police department said he has plenty of time and just celebrated his 6-month birthday on Wednesday.