its ok to cut the dead part or will it kill the rest of the plant. I read it had to be thoroughly watered to establish.

read section 12 : https://sites.google.com/site/tnarboretum/Home/planting-a-tree-or-shrub

i hope your watering is more than the few stains i see in the mulch ...

dead is dead.. and you were right.. its dead..

snip out dead... its dead... why leave dead parts .. they are dead ... note key word... lol ..

looks like what we would call mechanical damage ... somewhere between grower and your house.. it was damages by man or machine ...

ken

I water at the root and give them a soaking not just the wet stain on mulch lol. But I see new growth on the shrub so I will cut the dead part out

They might be broken branches from the planting. The dead needles are confined to one branch; this isn't the result of a systemic problem.

so I can just cut the dead part out and it shouldn't kill the rest.

Is that Blue Star Juniper (J. squamata)? If so, I’ve had a few of them, and they all seem to do what yours has done. And yes, you can cut out the dead material w/o harming the rest.