By Todd Quinones

MONTGOMERY COUNTY (CBS) - When Officer Brad Fox was gunned down and killed, his K9 partner Nick was by his side.

Now it is Nick that will be beside Brad’s family for life.

“I’m just glad to have him home officially. It’s a small piece of Brad that we now have home with us permanently,” Lindsay Fox said.

Nick was retired Monday night and officially signed over to Brad’s widow Lindsay.

As a video played, showing Nick and Officer Fox putting on a demonstration just five days before his murder, Lindsay Fox, who is pregnant, wiped away tears.

“We found out Friday that we have a boy on the way, so Brad will always with us. It’ll be a junior,” she said.

A seven-year veteran of Plymouth Township Police Department, Officer Brad Fox served two tours in Iraq as a marine.

Some found it a fitting tribute that custody of Nick was handed over to Fox’s family on Veteran’s Day.

“The entire community yearned to do something for Brad,” Montgomery County Commissioner Josh Shapiro said.

Suspect 44-year-old Andrew Charles Thomas, who had a criminal history, fatally shot himself in a wooded area just off Conshohocken Road following a hit-and-run accident.

Fellow officers who rushed to the scene to try and save fox’s life that day wanted to make sure Nick went home with his family.

“Tomorrow will be two months since Brad’s murder and to get this done this quick it helps with the healing process,” Plymouth Township Police Chief Joseph Lawrence said.

For Lindsay, who held her baby girl Cadence much of the night, Nicks’s bond with the family is irreplaceable.

“Thank you everybody for being here. He [Nick] is where he belongs. He is where he should be,” she told the crowd.

Nick who was grazed during the shooting has since fully recovered.