DCSO shoots, kills bear near Sunriver due to safety threat

(Update: Adding video; time and location bear was killed)

A nearly 100-pound black bear that was seen by several times by residents west of Sunriver over the weekend was followed, shot and killed Sunday as it approached a more populated area off Spring River Road due to the treat it posed to public safety, Deschutes County sheriff’s deputies said Monday.

Deputies were dispatched Sunday to the 56800 block of Gina Lane, near Spring River Road, on a report of a black bear, Sgt. William Bailey said in a news release.

“The property owner told dispatch he was armed and guarding his livestock from the bear,” Bailey wrote. “The reporting person had attempted to scare the bear away with loud yelling and banging noises, but the bear would not leave. This was the sixth reported bear sighting in the area over the previous 36 hours.”

On Saturday at 10:02 a.m., a caller reported a bear was blocking the hiking path near Cardinal Landing Bridge. At 7:18 p.m., a caller reported a bear had just walked by the front door of his residence on Besson Road. Later, at 11:46 p.m., another caller on Besson Road reported a bear had been seen on her property the day before.

On Sunday at 4:16 p.m., a caller reported a bear on his property on Besson Road, followed by a similar call by another property owner a minute later.

Bailey said deputies arrived at the Gina Lane address and located the bear in the back yard of the residential property. The deputies attempted to scare the bear off with beanbag projectiles fired from a 12-gauge shotgun.

“The bear was struck three times, but did not run off,” he wrote. “The bear responded by climbing a short distance up a tree, then came back down and began walking slowly southbound along the residential area.”

Deputies walked with the bear to alert any residents in the bear’s path to go inside their homes. They followed the bear to Spring River Road, where it was nearly struck by a vehicle as it crossed the roadway.

“As the bear continued walking south in the residential area, the deputies observed the bear exhibit signs of aggression toward them,” Bailey said.

As the bear continued in the residential area, the deputies could hear kids playing in the direction the bear was walking, then observed four children between the ages of 6 and 8 playing in an outdoor pool. Deputies yelled to alert the kids and then their parents, who quickly removed the kids from the pool and escorted them inside their home.

“The deputies then observed the bear approaching a residence where an adult male was outside and up on a ladder,” Bailey wrote. “The path the bear was on was going to place it in close proximity to this residence, as well as entering a more densely populated area of the subdivision.”

“Based on the unsuccessful attempts by both a homeowner and deputies to scare the bear back into the forest and due its close proximity to residences and people, a deputy shot and killed to bear in the interest of public safety,” the sergeant said.

Bailey said the deputies had “arrived and attempted to haze it until they used lethal force on it in the area of Covina Road” around 4:20 p.m. Sunday.

He added, “The decision to kill the bear was made only after other attempts to scare the bear back into the forest had failed and deputies feared an encounter between the bear and a person/child was imminent.”

The young adult male bear, weighing about 96 pounds, has been turned over to the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife in Bend for inspection, Bailey said..

Sheriff Shane Nelson said: “This bear was a threat to public safety, and I would not allow it to have an opportunity to injure or kill a person. This bear was seen too many times in this area, and we were not going to take a risk with an encounter.”