HOUSTON—Authorities have arrested a suspect in the brutal killing of a tame deer found decapitated last month at a Houston area wildlife sanctuary.

Twenty-three-year-old Brandon Eugene Gregory was arrested at his home late Friday by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officers and Harris County Precinct 5 deputies.

He is charged with taking a wildlife resource without landowner consent—a state jail felony offense.

The remains of the child-friendly deer were discovered Nov. 25 at Bear Creek Pioneers Park. Mr. Buck had been at the sanctuary since 2001.

The death of the beloved deer last week caused outrage and sickened many area animal lovers.

Deputies said Mister Buck's killer waded through a mile of marshland in the middle of the night to get to the back fence of Bear Creek Park. They cut open the fence and killed the deer with some kind of instrument, then cut its head off, according to investigators.

“If you’re gonna eat the meat, you take the body not the head,” said J.J. Laine, Harris County Precinct 5 Assistant Chief. “We don’t know if it’s a trophy thing, if it’s a ritual thing. We just, at this point, don’t have any idea why it was done. It’s just so senseless.”

JAMES FULLER

Mister Buck was very popular with park staff and visitors.

Mister Buck, had been at the sanctuary since 2001. He was friendly and gentle and very popular with staff and visitors.

“Killing something that is behind gates, trained to come up to people, that’s wrong, that’s wrong,” said James Fuller the day he learned of the deer's death.

Fuller and his dogs visited the park almost daily—primarily to see Mister Buck.

“You know you’re gonna see the deer, know it’s gonna come to you,” Fuller remembered. “He’d walk with me along the fence like he was my animal.”

Last week, Fuller speculated that the killer was probably after Mister Buck’s antlers.

“It hurt a lot of people. That’s all I can say,” Fuller said. “It hurt me.”

Authorities said a Crime Stoppers tip led them to Gregory. A $10,000 reward had been offered for tips leading to the arrest of the killer. The deer’s missing head was found at Gregory’s home.