No criminal charges for Tahoe homeowner who killed bear cub, El Dorado DA determines
A man who killed a young bear at his Lake Tahoe Basin home in May will not face criminal charges after the El Dorado County District Attorney’s Office concluded on Tuesday no laws were broken when the man killed the cub when after it entered his home and attacked his dog.
The South Lake Tahoe resident shot the 70- to 85-pound bear with a rifle three times at his home on Player Drive on May 27, causing an uproar from distraught wildlife advocates, who created a Change.org petition and gathered nearly 3,000 signatures for a full, independent investigation of the incident.
Game wardens with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife investigated the incident and determined that no wildlife laws had been violated. But on May 31, the District Attorney’s Office launched its own investigation.
Officials sifted through reports and evidence gathered from Fish and Wildlife officials to independently determine whether there was criminal activity. According to the D.A.’s Office, investigators reviewed the suspect’s 911 call, his interview following the shooting and an interview of a neighbor, as well as the bear’s bullet wounds and photos from the scene, according to a news release from D.A. Vern Pierson’s office.
The bear cub broke into the home through a back door that had been left ajar and moved to the kitchen where the suspect’s dog was resting. The bear began “aggressively growling” at the dog, the man told a game warden.
He attempted to scare the bear off by yelling and waving his arms before grabbing his rifle. When he returned to the room, he said the bear was “nearly on top” of his dog, at which point he shot the bear twice. The bear ran out of the home and up a pine tree in the backyard. It eventually fell to the ground, and the man shot the bear a third time “out of concern for its suffering,” the report stated.
The suspect immediately called 911 to notify authorities about the incident. The District Attorney’s Office obtained the recording and described the man as “very nervous and out of breath” during the call.
“I didn’t want to do it. He was going to eat my dog,” the man told the dispatcher. “He scared me!”
The man appeared “very distraught and shaken up,” but relieved that he and his dog were uninjured, a Fish and Wildlife officer on the scene reported.
The officer interviewed a resident in the neighborhood who saw the bear enter the suspect’s home. The neighbor attempted to bang pots and pans to ward off the cub to no avail.
According to state law, a person commits a crime if he or she “maliciously and intentionally maims, mutilates, tortures, or wounds a living animal, or maliciously and intentionally kills an animal.” But Californians do have the right to defend themselves if the animal presents a threat to life.
The District Attorney’s Office concluded in its findings that the resident killed the bear “out of a concern for the safety of himself and his property,” and the rounds fired were unlikely to endanger the rest of the neighborhood, the news release said.
The Bear League, the group that advocated for the independent investigation, said they were unhappy with the D.A.’s findings, calling it a “placation attempt.”
“We’re very disappointed but not at all surprised,” said Ann Bryant, the executive director of the Homewood-based organization. “We were hoping for a legitimate and serious investigation but that didn’t happen.”
The May incident in May was not the first time the resident encountered a bear break-in.
In September 2021, the resident reported that a mother bear and three cubs broke into his home three different times. Photos released by the District Attorney’s Office show that the bears stole his food and damaged his kitchen and living room.
