Deer shot in drive-by in front of Bragg Creek home

It was a drive-by worthy of a Disney script.

A deer and her two fawns had been regular visitors to the Walsh family'sWest BraggCreekproperty since spring, enough thatMackenzie Walsh says they were "almost like pets to us."

So she and her family reacted with horror when a man drove up in a BMW last weekend and shot the doe in front of their home.

The gunshot startled her three-year-old daughter Tilly and sent her husband running out the door to confront the man.

"He said, 'Stop!', and the guy peeled off. And then Justin, my husband, went and looked and sure enough he had shot the mom deer 15 metres basically from where we were sitting in our living room," Walsh told CBC News.

"Had he missed it could've gone straight through our window."

Walsh says people in the area are outraged by the incident, and she's concerned for the two fawns, which the family has named Hope and Grace.

"She has these two babies that now have no mom," Walsh said. "And I know it is that time of year where they're getting weaned, but they're not weaned yet and they need to bulk up before winter comes and it comes fast here, so that's another concern."

Alberta Fish andWildlife officers, as well as the RCMP, are looking into the incident, but have not yet identified the driver, who could face numerous chargesincluding careless use of a firearm.

"Why did the deer die?" Tilly asks.

"When the mom died I heard that noise ... that 'boom.' It was really, really, really loud."