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Alaska Police Shoot Bear and Injure Bystander

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Seward police say that a bystander was injured when they fatally shot a bear roaming through the town.

Police say that a shotgun round pierced the black bear Thursday night, but ricocheted and hit a bystander in the abdomen.

"I think it went through his ear and maybe out one side of his head. And then, like I say, it ricocheted off something and then hit the bystander,'' City Manager Phillip Oates said.

Oates added the person was merely bruised.

"It didn't even penetrate the skin... We're very lucky in that case,'' Oates said.

Police did not identify the man hit by the ricochet.

Officers were responding to a call of a bear hiding near the boat harbor. Police tried shooing the bear away, and people gathered near the area to watch. When the bear ran, an officer fired the shotgun, but the bear kept running. The officer shot again, that time injuring the bystander.

Oates said the man was standing about 125 feet from where the bear was at the time of the shooting. He was examined and released from Providence Seward Medical Center.

Officers were responding to a handful of bear calls that night in the Kenai Peninsula city of 2,600 people. One bear damaged a screen door, while another "entered a residence to eat the dog's food.''

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