Police Kill Mountain Lion After Chase in Oceanside

Police shot and killed a 150-pound mountain lion in Oceanside after a three-hour early morning chase across yards, balconies and rooftops of homes in beachfront neighborhoods.

The cat was reported to officers in a passing patrol car about 2:15 a.m. Saturday by three men in a pickup truck. After finding nothing, officers surmised that the men had been drinking and had just imagined seeing the animal, said an Oceanside police spokesman.

Then, half an hour later, a police car was flagged down by a man who had been sitting on the beach. The man told officers that the animal had run past him in the darkness.

A posse of Oceanside police, state Fish and Game and county humane society officers, and a professional animal trapper joined the hunt. The creature was spotted heading north over fences, through back yards and onto balconies and the rooftops of pricey beach condominiums, sending domestic cats fleeing.

The pursuers cornered the mountain lion on the edge of a bluff but said they were unable to get close enough to capture it. At 5:15 a.m., five police officers opened fire, wounding the animal. The wounded lion then ran off and hid under a porch. It reportedly charged a pursuing officer, who killed it with nine shots from his handgun. The lion collapsed and died less than six feet from the officer, police said.

A police spokesman said Sunday that the decision to kill the animal was made when the chase awakened residents and police feared that the mountain lion would endanger people who left their homes to find out what was going on.