ROCKINGHAM — Capt. Jeff Starling was sitting in his patrol car completing paperwork Thursday when he noticed an unusual pedestrian: a white-tailed buck.
Starling, supervisor the Civil Division of the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office, said he had just left the jail around 12:30 p.m. and gotten into his car in the parking lot between the jail and Magistrate’s Office.
He said he caught something out of the corner of his eye, looked up and saw what appears to be a three-point buck.
“It ran full speed into that fence and that’s when I grabbed my phone,” Starling said. “I was going to try to video it, but it happened so quickly.”
After hitting the fence, Starling said the deer jumped a short wall: “It looked like it was going to land on the hood!”
The deer then walked through the parking lot and another deputy tried to follow it toward the intersection of U.S. 1 and U.S. 74 Business to try and make sure it didn’t cause a wreck — but he lost it, according to Starling.
“In 26 years, I’ve never seen any wildlife downtown,” Starling said.
CORRECTION: This story has been edited to reflect that Starling is supervisor of the Civil Division. 2:16 p.m. 10-14-21.