A deer with a single, unimpressive antler shot to local stardom in Manhattan earlier this month. The buck was an odd sight in an odd site: A patch of park in Harlem, lined with chain-link fencing.

His place of residence was a stone’s throw from a bodega and a subway entrance, the New York Times reported. Locals gave him a nickname: J.R., for Jackie Robinson, the name of the park. They also worried that he would meet his end crossing a busy street.

On Friday, after a dramatic skirmish between the New York City mayor and New York governor over whether to relocate or euthanize the deer, the buck did indeed meet his end – but not the way anyone expected.

City officials said the white-tailed deer, which had just been granted an eleventh-hour reprieve from euthanasia, died at a city animal shelter while waiting for state officials to take him to a wilder area upstate. “The deer was under a great deal of stress in the past 24 hours, and it died,” Sam Biederman, a spokesman for New York City’s parks and recreation department, said.

Biederman said the city’s preferred to euthanize the deer since he was captured after ambling out of the park and into a public-housing complex on Thursday afternoon. It was unclear how the deer had gotten to the park in the first place. That morning, Mayor Bill de Blasio’s office said it would put the deer down, citing state wildlife officials’ guidance there were only two options: The animal could be released near where it was captured – which wouldn’t help matters – or be euthanized.

Predictably, that triggered outcry among animal welfare advocates and ordinary fans of the HarlemDeer, as he had become known on social media. Thursday night, Gov. Andrew Cuomo offered to have the deer moved outside the city.