INDUSTRY – Adrian Johnson wiped a tear from her eye as she struggled not to cry.

But the 18-year-old can’t help it. Neither can her mother, Connie Johnson.

The tears flow when they talk about Adrian’s dog, Bruzer, shot to death near their home Nov. 6.

They want to know who shot him and why.

Adrian’s eyes filled as she explained that the bullet went straight to his heart and came out his side.

The fawn-colored, 52-pound pit bull with a white stripe was 6 weeks old when he was given to Adrian by a friend of the family. Bruzer was her Valentine’s Day gift three years ago.

He was such a part of Adrian’s life that she had her senior class pictures taken with him on her lap.

Adrian recalled Wednesday the day Bruzer was found dead.

She had just come home from work about 11:15 a.m. that day. Bruzer met her, as he always did, and walked in with her. When he wanted to go outside, he laid his head on her leg, she said.

“He was a very silent dog,” she said. “Everything he does is by gesture. I raised him to be very quiet about what he does.”

She got up to go into the closet to get the orange vest she had made him, she said, but her brother, Alex, 16, had let the dogs out. The family has four other dogs.

“Not even four minutes from my being in the closet, and I heard a gunshot,” Adrian said. “I ran outside. I knew something was wrong. I started calling and calling for him, and he didn’t come.”

The other dogs did. Her brother and boyfriend went looking for Bruzer, she said, and found him about two hours later in a clearing about 180 feet from their house.

They live on Route 148 near the Anson line. He was on the family’s land when he was shot, she said.

Her brother carried the dog home.

“I thought everything would be OK if we could be able to get him to a vet,” she said. “My brother was covered in his blood. My brother looked at me and told me he was gone.”

Bruzer had been her best friend. She still cries when she goes to sleep, Adrian said. “He followed me everywhere.”

Looking for why’

Adrian and her mother both said they need to know what happened.

“I want to know who did it,” Adrian said. “I just want to know why. If it was an accident, they should have come and told me. If it was an accident, I would have been heartbroken but wouldn’t be as mad as I am.”

“But nobody’s come forth,” said her mother, “and said, I’ve mistaken your dog for a deer,’ I shot your dog by accident,’ or simply I saw your dog running in the woods.’ I know there’s a leash law, but come forth and put my mind at ease as to why.”

According to Becky Orff, secretary to the commissioner of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, “If you were out hunting, and you saw a dog chasing a deer or a dog at large, you would contact your local law enforcement. A hunter doesn’t have the authority to shoot the dog.”

The penalty would be up to the court, depending on the situation, she said.

The dogs are usually under voice command by family members, Connie Johnson said, or restrained. Bruzer was wearing a collar and tags the day he was shot.

“I never had a problem with Bruzer,” Adrian said. “He was really energetic but very well behaved and played with my nieces and nephews with no problems. He wouldn’t chase deer. Never. If he was vicious, he would have been vicious a long time ago.”