NJ Bear Shot to Death

NEWARK (AP/WCBS)  -- Moments before an animal control officer could subdue it with a tranquilizer gun Wednesday, a 300-pound black bear that had been wandering urban areas of north Jersey reared up on its hind legs and appeared ready to charge police officers, who then killed it with repeated shotgun blasts.

As police officers crouched nearby, seven loud shots rang out and the bear slumped to the ground in the small backyard where it had been cornered after two days of rambling east from the suburbs of Livingston to the inner cities of Newark and Irvington -- some of the most densely populated areas of the state.

The bear shooting came only days after a 225-pound bear was caught in downtown Trenton, prompting state biologists to kill it. It was the first time a bear had been killed as part of the state's no-tolerance policy to bruins in densely populated areas.

The bear killed in Irvington was the second.

Nervous police officers in Irvington had to chase three or four young children from nearby backyards, and were growing more worried that more than 1,000 neighborhood children would soon be walking home from school.

Jim Osorio, a Morristown animal control officer who had been called in to assist, was in position to shoot the bruin with a tranquilizer dart and was preparing to pull the trigger when it reared up on its hind legs and assumed an aggressive position, he said.

 ``We were going to tranquilize the animal and try to relocate him,'' he said. ``It did not happen that way. I tried to save the animal.''

But when the bear reared up, police had no choice but to kill it, said Osorio, who gave the order to shoot.

Two of the three officers that had pointed shotguns at the bear opened fire, Irvington Deputy Police Chief Steven Palamara said.

The bear was 6 feet tall and between 300 and 350 pounds, he added.

``He was jumping over 6-foot fences like they were little curbs,'' Palamara said.

 Palamara said the bear had to be downed before schools let out.

 ``I did not want to see 2:15 come and 1,000 kids be around here,'' Palamara said.

The deputy chief said he had to yell to one small girl playing in an adjacent yard to run back into her house.

``She was looking at me, and I'm telling her, `Get out! Get out!' The bear was 10 to 15 feet away in the next yard, but these fences meant nothing to him.''

The bear was first spotted in Livingston on Tuesday, causing suburban police to give chase through backyards. But by Wednesday, it was in more urban locations, even wandering into Newark's Vailsburg section near Seton Hall University.

At least two residents and one crossing guard reported seeing the bear in Newark.

``It was big and black -- real black,'' said Agnes Freeman, a crossing guard who said she spotted the bruin a block away. ``It was way too big to be a cat or dog. I'm afraid to stand out here.''

The bear had wandered into a ``Bear Exclusion Zone,'' a state designation which allows urban communities to kill it. They can also allow it to leave if they believe the bear won't cause any problems.

The bear zones were instituted last year as part of state efforts to control a burgeoning bear population that has created a nuisance not only for suburban residents, but city dwellers as well.

Wednesday's action drew a protest from the New Jersey Sierra Club, which asked Gov. Jon S. Corzine to suspend the bear exclusion zone policy and develop a more humane program for managing the state's bear population.

Besides the zones, the state has also held bear hunts for two of the last three years, and has even experimented with giving the bears birth control.

 Photos: WCBSTV.com