September 2, 2010
Bear attack: Firearms can save a life, but watch where you shoot
Everyone familiar with bears, firearms and Alaska knew that sooner or later the worst was going to happen in urbanized Southcentral — someone was going to start shooting at a bear and someone else was going to get hit with a stray slug. … The wounding of a bystander by a stray bullet, when it finally occurred, took place in the city of Seward. But more on that in a minute. … All of which brings this back to last week’s shooting in Seward, which was not some crazy drive-by. This shooting involved a man near the harbor being hit by a slug that came from shotgun being used by a Seward police officer to dispatch a troublesome black bear. The slug, according to officials’ reports, went through the bear, ricocheted off something, and then hit the man in the stomach.
“It didn’t even penetrate the skin … We’re very lucky in that case,” City Manager Phillip Oates told the Associated Press. … Oates is right about luck. Police in Seward got very lucky. The man hit by the slug was treated and released from a local hospital the same day. It could have been worse, a whole lot worse.