Haines police sent out a Nixle alert just after 7:30 a.m. Monday, warning people of a report of a wounded bear in the area near FAA Road. The alert also warned that residents might hear gunshots as officers responded.
Haines Police Chief Josh Dryden said an FAA resident called around 7 a.m. saying they heard a single gunshot and shortly thereafter the sounds of what they believed to be an injured bear.
“I got on scene and I did hear sounds that sounded like an injured bear. I waited until I had a wildlife trooper on scene with me,” he said.
He said that one gunshot was heard by two different neighbors and that once Trooper Colin Nemec arrived they tried to locate the bear.
“We did see it briefly, but we weren’t able to ascertain if it needed to be put down or didn’t have a safe clear shot at it,” Dryden said.
Neither of them shot the bear with lethal rounds.
“We did fire some cracker rounds at the bear to try to move it towards officers so they could ascertain if it needed to be put down,” he said.
But it didn’t work.
There were no reports of a blood trail.
“I don’t know, I’m not sure if it was shot, if it was hit with, maybe somebody hit it with another less lethal round,” Dryden said.
Dryden said he talked to all the neighbors in the community. “We just advised that if they heard the bear, just let us know, and we will head back out and try to make contact with the bear,” he said.
The bear was moving away from both officers. “It wouldn’t let us get close enough. It was pretty dense in there and there’s houses around so we didn’t have a safe shot so we didn’t take it,” he said.
Fish and Game biologist Roy Churchwell said staff were notified of the shooting Monday morning. In an email he said that every bear has a different personality, so it’s not immediately clear what can be expected from an injured bear.
“In general I would expect an injured bear to avoid people and to lay low until it starts to feel better,” he said.“If it encounters people, I would expect it to shy away from them and retreat if it has that option available.”
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a response from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.