An officer fired a beanbag shotgun while trying to herd a bear out of town and instead killed the animal, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said.
SILVERTON, Colo. — A Colorado sheriff’s office is investigating after a bear was shot and killed in what the office is calling a “tragic” incident Wednesday night.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said an officer responded to several reports of a person harassing a mother bear’s cubs in downtown Silverton, a town in southwestern Colorado.
Video sent to the officer showed the person stepping down from the side of an alley as onlookers told him to get away from the bears, and the video was captioned, “Here is —- grabbing a baby bear,” according to the sheriff’s office.
When the officer arrived, there was a crowd of people in a narrow alley surrounding the bear and her two cubs.
The officer directed people in the area back indoors. The person reportedly involved in the harassment was asked to return to his home five times, the sheriff’s office said.
The officer decided to use beanbag rounds to get the bear off a roof and out of town. A round fired by the officer successfully got the bear off the roof to collect her cubs and moving toward the next block.
That’s when the officer came across another person in the alley whom he told to go back inside.
The officer fired another beanbag round intended to keep the bear moving, but instead the round penetrated the bear’s abdomen, killing it.
The sheriff’s office said it often works with Colorado Parks and Wildlife (CPW) to discourage bears that get too comfortable in the town limits, and officers spend numerous nights herding them out of town while providing negative feedback with beanbag shotguns.
“The officer involved was acting accordingly, using commonly practiced methods, and attempting to save this bear’s life, not cause any serious harm,” the sheriff’s office said. “This is a most unfortunate incident, and our entire Office is saddened by the outcome.”
The sheriff’s office is investigating if any charges will be recommended for the person reportedly harassing the cubs.
CPW officers later captured the cubs, which are “past the age that we would typically take cubs into our rehab facility,” said a CPW spokesperson.
The cubs were released together away from town, the spokesman said.
Silverton Mayor Dayna Kranker released the following statement about the bear’s death:
“Our community mourns a tragic outcome for a local mama bear. This outcome was avoidable and we can all work together to better protect the local wildlife that we share a home with. As Mayor of the Town of Silverton, I am calling on our community to create a coalition to reduce harm from human-wildlife interactions. We can work on this from multiple levels, including: resident and visitor education, private and public refuse management, and code enforcement. We can do better and I look forward to putting together this coalition to make positive change.”
A spokesperson said a public meeting for a community coalition led by the town in partnership with CPW, the sheriff’s department and local citizens will take place in the next week or so.
