Perryville police kill wild bear wandering through town

Residents of Perryville, Missouri, got a scare Sunday morning when a wild bear wandered through town.

Perryville police chief Direk Hunt said police first received reports of the 200- to 250-pound black bear on U.S. 61 about 8:30 a.m.

The Perry County Sheriff's department also responded to the reports. Sheriff Gary J. Schaaf said the first call reporting a bear on the loose seemed strange, but reports quickly were corroborated by other frightened residents began reporting the same.

"[The bear] was just scaring the heck out of everyone," Schaaf said.

The bear soon was found behind an office building, Hunt said, at which time police tried to corral it away from populated areas.

The bear, however, only proceeded further into town, Perryville assistant chief of Police Bill Jones said.

Perryville resident Larry Endres said when he returned home from working a night shift, he heard emergency calls on his police scanner as the bear crossed a public park and several residential yards.

"He walked uptown faster than you or I could've done it," Endres said.

Police, while trying to roust the bear from town, took video of the bear wandering on a family's porch.

"That porch is across from the Lutheran School here in Perryville ... [where] there was an event going on," Jones said. "It cut through a yard with three little girls playing in the back. ... It was very unnerving."

The bear, which was estimated to be about two years old and 5 feet tall when standing, "posed a significant risk to public safety," Hunt said.

"Holding my hand next to that bear's paw, that bear had a huge paw," Jones said. "I can only imagine if it had swiped it."

When it wandered into a field behind two wooded areas near a minipark, police deemed it safe and necessary to shoot and kill the bear.

"Our officers wanted to find a different way to deal with it, but there were just no other options," Jones said. "No one wanted to have to put the bear down, but when it's a bear in the middle of town, there's really no way to corral it."

Sgt. Danny Marler said killing the bear was a last resort, but necessary.

"Putting this bear down was a very difficult decision," he said. "The safety of the community weighed greater [than] the cost of a beautiful animal."

Jones said all other options of dealing with the bear were considered.

"I know people will say, 'Why wasn't it tranquilized; why wasn't it shot with a net gun?'" Jones said. "Net guns are not designed for a 250-pound animal, and number one, a tranquilizer is not always readily available. It certainly wasn't in this case, and second, it might take 10 or 15 minutes before that animal goes down, and a bear can do a lot of damage in that amount of time."

Representatives from the Missouri Department of Conservation later arrived and agreed police officers had handled the situation correctly.

The bear is being transported to Columbia, Missouri, for medical examination, and Jones said it is hoped a greater understanding of the animal may aid in future such situations.

"It's wonderful to see bears moving back into counties and states where they'd once been in, and now they're back, but the problem is when they get into a populated area like a city," he said.

tgraef@semissourian.com

388-3627

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