Police Report Blames Bear’s Death on State

State wildlife officials could not immediately be located, they lacked the right equipment and they did not properly tranquilize a 356-pound bear that wandered into Azusa on May 20 and was eventually killed, according to a report from the Azusa Police Department.

The bear, one of an estimated 60 California black bears inhabiting the nearby Angeles National Forest, came onto city streets at 4 a.m. and was killed 3 1/2 hours later by 14 shots fired by four police officers. The death sparked an outcry from animal rights activists and area residents.

Azusa police issued a seven-page report Tuesday that placed most of the blame on the state Department of Fish and Game. In addition to using an insufficient tranquilizer dosage, Fish and Game officials were slow to respond in many ways, the report said.

Patrick Moore, a department spokesman, said state officials were still reviewing the report. He acknowledged that a better system of contacting officials during off hours is needed, but said that the dosage used to bring down the bear exceeded the amount recommended for an animal of its size.

The Fish and Game Department is giving the home phone numbers of its wardens to local police departments to enable faster communication when wild animals wander into residential areas, Moore said.

The police dispatcher who took the initial call about the bear contacted the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society, the report said. The officer there told her he was not equipped to deal with a bear. He advised her to contact Fish and Game officials, but the dispatcher could not find an after-hours number.

A Glendora police officer monitoring the incident on his police radio told the dispatcher he knew where a Fish and Game employee lived and the employee was escorted to the scene.

The police report concluded that Fish and Game officials erred when they fired two separate tranquilizer darts, one containing two cubic centimeters of Telazol and a second, 27 minutes later, containing three cubic centimeters.

An independent expert consulted by police said the first dart should have contained five cubic centimeters of tranquilizer to bring down a 350-pound bear. The report also states that the Fish and Game biologist did not have a needle long enough to transfer the Telazol from a vial to the dart syringe. A Glendora police officer was sent to Foothill Presbyterian Hospital to pick up a needle.

In addition, the report said that a Fish and Game official engaged in a heated discussion with a police sergeant over whether to kill the bear and screamed, “Shoot it, shoot it!” when the bear approached him.

The report said police decided to shoot the bear once it left a perimeter established by officers to keep the animal away from spectators and residents.

In rebutting the report, Fish and Game spokesman Moore said that tranquilizers can be mixed in various potencies and that the first dart contained a higher dosage than recommended for a bear of that size. Most animals will become immobilized in 15 minutes but some can take up to an hour, he added.

Moore said he did not know why neither of the drug injection kits the biologist had on the scene contained a longer needle.

Moore said that he had not talked to the official who allegedly told police to shoot the animal, but that the biologist and another warden on the scene said they did not remember such a demand being made. Moore said the official in question had actually stepped between a police officer and the bear in order to stop the officer from killing it.

Moore said many biologists and wardens work out of their homes with phones directly linked to their department phones. “It’s rare in our line of business that someone has to get a hold of us right away,” he said. “We need to set up some communications systems,” he said.

Bill Dyer, a spokesman for an animal rights coalition that called for further investigation of the shooting, said that the Department of Fish and Game did not act responsibly in tranquilizing the bear.

“There was no one on the scene who knew what they were doing,” Dyer said. “The facts speak for themselves.”

Times staff writer Vicki Torres contributed to this report.