Arlington police are investigating after a deer was killed in some unusual circumstances near Shirlington.

Officers discovered the deceased deer around 4:45 p.m. last Saturday (Nov. 17) in a wooded area along the 2600 block of S. Walter Reed Drive, according to Arlington County Police spokeswoman Kirby Clark. The area is home to some woods backing up to residential neighborhoods — Fairlington is on one side, Claremont is on another — as well as a trail along Lucky Run.

Clark says that animal control officers collected the animal and added that “at this point, the incident is not believed to be criminal in nature.”

However, neighbors who witnessed the incident and its aftermath believe someone felled the deer with a bow and arrow of some kind, and several posted about it in a local Facebook group.

Jennifer Toussaint, the county’s chief animal control officer, said she could not confirm those reports. Clark similarly added that she is “not able to confirm the deer’s cause of death.”

Arlington does have an ordinance making it illegal for “any person to shoot a compound bow, crossbow, longbow, or recurve bow at or upon the property of another without permission,” or within “100 yards of any public road, public building or structure, private residence or structure, or property of another.”

But the county does allow for the bow hunting of deer without antlers in certain time periods. Deer season ran from Oct. 6 through Nov. 16 this year, with another “late season” hunting period for the month of April.

Flickr pool photo by Lisa Novak