(STORY IMAGE:KHQ.COM)
ST. MARIES, Idaho -In a windy, but quiet family-friendly neighborhood, it seems like everyone had a personal connection with a certain whitetail deer.
“From the mailman, to the Avista guys to the contractors doing work on the homes and all the neighbors,” Mia Suchoski said.
Mia Suchoski called the deer “Bucky” while her neighbors Donna and Doug Smeltzer called it “Baby.”
But that would change last Sunday, October 8th, 2017.
"I said look Doug come look Baby's out there playing and that's when I stepped out and said 'she's been shot',” Donna Smeltzer said.
According to Idaho Fish and Game, they received several complaints that morning about the deer.
They say the call came in as a deer that was being aggressive towards people.
Fish and Game says once the officer was out there, it was her decision to put the deer down.
But the first shot did not kill, Fish and Game says it took three shots to kill the deer.
“In a very close knit housing development, in a residential area,” Suchoski said.
Fish and Game added they back the officers decision, noting that people should not feed deer.
But Suchoski and her neighbors say it was completely unnecessary.
“All they had to do was tranquilize her and relocate her somewhere else, I don't see why with it being Fish and Game why they couldn't have done that instead of murdering her right in our backyard,” Smeltzer said.