An employee at the , the iconic restaurant on Aspen Mountain’s summit, shot a black bear Saturday morning after the bruin made its way inside the establishment, authorities say.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife said its officers responded and found the wounded bear alive and under a deck before euthanizing it.
“We had received reports that the bear had been in the area and it had charged one of the employees in the previous days,” Mike Porras, spokesman for CPW’s northwest region, said Tuesday. “Our officers are investigating the incident.”
Porras said the encounter at the Sundeck restaurant happened about 7 a.m. Saturday and that the employee who shot the bear used both a shotgun and a .357 Magnum revolver.
“At this point I don’t have any information that there was anything illegal,” Porras said of the use of force. He explained that the firearm discharge is not under CPW’s review and would fall to local authorities.
“At this point in the investigation, we believe the use of force was justified,” he added. “I want to stress that we don’t recommend an individual to use a firearm as a first option. We do, however, respect the right of a person to use lethal force to defend from a wildlife attack if they feel it is necessary.”
CPW says the bear was a male believed to be roughly a yearling. Porras explained that while the bear was not very large, it was capable of causing injuries to humans.
The Aspen Times, , says the incident briefly closed the gondola that runs to Aspen Mountain’s summit. Jeff Hanle, spokesman for the Aspen Skiing Company, told the newspaper that employees at the restaurant had tried to shoo the bear away before the shooting.
Hanle said, according to the Times, that the bear had broken into the restaurant through a locked door.
“It had broken into a locked freezer before,” Hanle told the newspaper. “It seemed adept at getting in.”
The shooting in Aspen is among a spat of bear encounters across the state in recent weeks.
Last week, Jefferson County sheriff’s deputies freed a bruin that in an unlocked Subaru near the Chief Hosa campground. In another incident, a bear charged wedding guests at a creekside Fourth of July ceremony in Boulder County.
