A man was charged with brutally stabbing an 11-year-old dog to death at a North Carolina park on Monday as his owner watched in horror from a pickleball court.

James Wesley Henry, 43, faces felony animal cruelty charges for stabbing an 11-year-old mixed-breed dog named Benier to death in an Asheville park, Asheville Watchdog reports. . report. The dog was lounging on a long leash near the Weaver Park tennis court where owner Reesebeth McKee was playing pickleball, the newspaper said.

“She was lying peacefully in the shade, tied up with a very long leash,” McKee told the magazine. “Then my (pickleball) partner said, ‘Someone is hitting your dog.'”

Beignet, a beloved 11-year-old mongrel, was fatally stabbed while his owner was playing pickleball nearby at Weaver Park in North Asheville. “That’s when it gets scary because it’s so coincidental,” said Reesebeth McKee, owner of Beignets and a North Asheville resident. https://t.co/dFw9q0xcIy

— Asheville Watchdog (@AvlWatchdog) June 27, 2023

Eyewitness Eric Hullin, who was also on the pickleball court, told Asheville Observers that he only became aware of the situation after recalling the incident and hearing “some pretty violent-sounding words.” Shortly after, Mr. Hullin noticed that McKee’s dog was having trouble.

“I thought the culprit was definitely clenching his fists as hard as he could at the time, but I saw that he was really hitting the dog,” Hurin said. “I turned around and looked at the dog and saw the last few screams and jerks. It took.”

“He started walking very casually as if nothing had happened,” Hurin told the media when he approached the alleged attacker.

Zen Sutherland, 68, also witnessed the incident and tracked down the culprit, saying the man was “yelling at himself, at the world, at the injustice of life and so on.” Sutherland said the assailant knew he was being followed, but Sutherland continued to pursue him until police took him into custody, Asheville Observatory reported.

“I knew he was mad at the world and that people had problems following him, but I also thought, ‘What can I do?’ Can we?” said Sutherland.

Sutherland said Henry had acted peacefully with police officers, but argued the incident reflected a growing crime problem in Asheville, coupled with a drug epidemic and homelessness. (Related: Asheville, N.C. forced to respond to crime after calls to defund police)

These observations were supported by McKee’s friend Elizabeth Byrd, who left the raid horrified and outraged.

“When horrific violent random crimes happen in the daytime, that’s when you get scared, and that’s what’s happening in Asheville right now. Blame the mayor and city council for failing to manage this mentally ill, homeless population.” I will,” Byrd told the show.