WHITE PINE, Tenn. (AP) — An 11-year-old boy faces a murder charge after witnesses say he killed his 8-year-old neighbor because she would not let him see her puppy.

Latasha Dyer said her daughter was playing outside when the next-door neighbor asked to see the puppy. She says the girl, McKayla, told the boy “no,” and the boy then shot her.

Jefferson County Sheriff Bud McCoig says the boy used his father’s 12-gauge shotgun to kill McKayla from inside his home. Deputies called to the scene Saturday in White Pine found McKayla on the ground with a chest wound. She was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.

Dyer told the station that McKayla “was a mommy’s girl” who “could always make you smile.”