So many questions, so few answers.
Who could imagine that, less than two weeks before Christmas, I would be writing about two tragic deaths instead of decorations and presents and carols? But I’m so haunted by the recent fatal attack on a 50-year-old man and his infant granddaughter in Tullahoma that it’s hard to think–or write–about anything else.
If you missed the news out of Coffee County last week, here’s what happened. James Alexander Smith–disabled and on oxygen–and his three-month-old granddaughter were home alone, in a house later declared unfit for human habitation, when they were attacked and killed by pit bulls who lived on the property. First responders found the grandfather dead and clutching a baseball bat. Dogs were still mauling the baby.
Police shot and killed two of the dogs. Five others were impounded.
This world is filled with unspeakable tragedies but—perhaps because it happened right here in a neighboring county—this one just won’t leave me alone. Like others who’ve learned about it, my heart is filled with grief and my mind is filled with questions.
The first questions relate to the dogs. Why does anyone who lives with children own even one pit bull? Go ahead and opine that a dog’s breed doesn’t matter, that it’s all about how a dog is trained and how it’s treated. Even now, plenty of folks are saying exactly that. But anyone with a lick of sense knows that a pit bull’s instinct is to attack when provoked. And sometimes when not provoked. Once a fight is underway, the instinct is to kill. For countless generations, that’s what these dogs have been bred to do. Multiply that instinct times two dogs or three dogs or seven dogs, when pack mentality has kicked in.
What chance does anyone, especially a newborn baby and a disabled man, have against an enemy such as that?
Not surprisingly, hundreds of folks on the internet have commented about this tragedy. Yeah, I know you can say anything—true, false or in between–on social media. There’s little or no fact checking. But what I’ve read has been horribly disturbing. One commenter wrote that several of the dogs belonged to the same litter and that, not long ago, they were being offered for sale in the Walmart parking lot in Tullahoma.
Another said the dogs belonged to the deceased man’s son. Still others said the dogs weren’t fed regularly and that animal control had been called several times to remove them from the home but had done nothing. A neighbor wrote that one of the dogs had killed his beloved pet cat. Several others commented that the dogs ran loose at will.
And then two people died.
There are so, so many unanswered questions. Who and where were the parents of the seven children? Why was a helpless infant left alone with a disabled man? Who first discovered the carnage? Who called 9-1-1? My heart breaks for every witness to this tragedy. First, the surviving family members. How will they ever recover from walking in on this? And what about the first responders called to the scene? I know they witness soul-crushing tragedies in their line of duty, but I can’t imagine anything worse than this.
We’re left now only with the hope that lessons can be learned from what happened in Tullahoma. Will child protective services step up? Will adult protective services step up? Will communities find ways to deal with packs of dogs running loose? (Dogs in packs or even in pairs are almost always more dangerous than one dog.) Will it ever be against the law to own even one pit bull, let alone several?
I suppose, for now and as usual, we’re left only with thoughts and prayers. No actions. No solutions. Just a whole, whole lot of thoughts and prayers.
(December 13, 2025)