An Eagle County that charged him as he was trying to scare the animal and her two cubs away from an apartment complex in the Colorado mountains, officials said Tuesday.
Deputies responded to a call about a bear at River Run apartments in Eagle-Vail, about halfway between Vail and Avon off of Interstate 70, at 7:30 p.m. on Aug. 24, according to the sheriff’s office.
The deputies found a group of about 40 people gathered near a sow and two cubs to watch and record them, and after dispersing the crowd tried to haze, or scare, the bears away from the area.
Hazing is a way to get wild animals to leave residential areas by making them afraid of humans so they stay away from places where they don’t belong, like schools and backyards.
“Deputies made this decision because the bears were not fazed by humans, people continued to gather, and bears had been reported in the area repeatedly, seemingly attracted by the apartment's trash,” sheriff’s officials wrote in a Facebook post on Tuesday.
One week earlier, on Aug. 17, a bear with two cubs attacked a man at the same apartment complex as he was leaving the laundry room, according to Colorado Parks and Wildlife. Itap unknown if it was the same bear that later charged deputies, the sheriff’s office said.
Deputies yelled at the bears to try to move them, which caused the sow to charge a deputy. When the yelling didn’t work, a deputy fired a rubber bullet to push her away from the apartments and toward the river, which hit her on her back leg.
The bear started pacing and, as the deputy moved back to put a boulder between them, the bear charged the deputy, the sheriff’s office said.
Sheriff’s officials published a video that showed parts of the encounter captured on the deputy’s body-worn camera, including the bear running at the deputy and the cubs following her after she was shot.
Deputies stayed at the scene to make sure no one approached the cubs, and CPW staff arrived at the scene to capture and relocate the cubs just before 9 p.m. The cubs are receiving care at a CPW rehabilitation center in Silt, the sheriff’s office said.
“We are heartbroken that a bear was killed in self-defense,” sheriff’s officials said in a statement. “We do not take lightly the responsibility we have in Eagle County to cohabitate with wildlife or the duty we have to protect both citizens and visitors.”
Colorado is seeing a significant increase in black bear sightings and conflicts because of extreme drought that's cut into their natural food supply as the animals enter , when bears try to eat as much food as possible before hibernation. Bears will feed for up to 22 hours a day to consume the 20,000 daily calories they need to survive hibernation, according to CPW.
CPW officials have euthanized 294 bears and relocated 98 others since Jan. 1 through the end of August, more than triple the number of euthanasias and relocations during the same time frame in 2025. Bear sightings and conflicts have also more than doubled, according to the agency.
