LOS ANGELES — A mountain lion famous for living in the heart of Los Angeles for more than a decade and becoming a symbol to save California’s shrinking big cat population was euthanized Saturday, officials said.

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P-22 was “compassionately euthanized” because of injuries the big cat, estimated to be 12 years old, likely suffered after being hit by a car this week and long-term health concerns, the Los Angeles Times reported.

During a news conference on Saturday, doctors described several chronic illnesses that may have led to P-22′s recent behavior, including an attack on a small dog.

“This really hurts and I know that. It’s been an incredibly difficult several days,” Chuck Bonham, director of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, told reporters. “And for myself, I’ve felt the entire weight of the city of Los Angeles.”

The cat had spent much of the past decade living in Los Angeles’ Griffith Park. Through the years, the mountain lion has been spotted by the famous Hollywood sign, burrowing beneath a home, and was blamed for killing a koala at the Los Angeles Zoo, according to NPR.

The cat’s recent behavioral changes included killing a leashed Chihuahua in the Hollywood Hills and attacking a dog in Silver Lake, the Times reported.

The severely underweight mountain lion, was caught Dec. 12 in the backyard of a home in the Los Feliz neighborhood of Los Angeles and taken to a wild animal care facility for a full health evaluation, The Orange County Register reported.

The big cat was evaluated by the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s wildlife health team, which gave P-22 a physical exam, organ function tests and an infectious disease screening, according to the newspaper.

“P-22 had a number of severe injuries and chronic health problems, his prognosis was deemed poor,” Bonham told reporters during Saturday’s news conference.

The cat suffered a skull fracture, an injury to his right eye, herniated organs and a torn diaphragm, according to Hendrik Nollens, vice president of wildlife health at the San Diego Zoo. Recently, doctors also discovered P-22 had Stage 2 kidney failure, advanced renal disease, advanced liver disease and was also suffering from a parasitic infection, the Register reported.

Doctors believe that P-22 was hit by a vehicle on Dec. 11, according to the newspaper.

P-22 became the face of a campaign to build a wildlife crossing over a Los Angeles-area freeway, The Associated Press reported. The crossing was envisioned to give big cats, coyotes, deer and other wildlife a safe path to the nearby Santa Monica Mountains, according to the news organization.

The big cat first gained notoriety in 2012 when he was caught on a photograph snapped by a motion-sensing camera in Griffith Park, the Times reported. The cat had traveled to the park from his likely birthplace in the Santa Monica Mountains, journeying across at least two freeways in the Los Angeles area, according to the newspaper.

“P-22′s survival on an island of wilderness in the heart of Los Angeles captivated people around the world and revitalized efforts to protect our diverse native species and ecosystems,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in a statement Saturday.

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