THIS IS WHAT I SPENT MOST OF SATURDAY COORDINATING FROM OUR 911 CENTER...
LAKEWOOD - Police shot and killed a one-year-old bison after spending much of Saturday afternoon trying to capture it as it roamed along Green Mountain.
"I think the coyotes probably separated it," said Mike DeBell, the animal's owner. "It jumped over the fence and then it got lost like a dog. It was gone."DeBell purchased two bison to raise for meat. He kept them at a farm adjacent to the southwest edge of Green Mountain. He said after a thorough search, he found no breaches in his fence line which stands five feet tall.DeBell estimates the bison, or commonly called buffalo, traversed Green Mountain for more than six miles before ending up in a neighborhood on the south side of 6th Avenue.
Authorities say they were first notified about the bison around 8 a.m. Police cornered the bison at McIntyre, and DeBell tried to get his Bison back."We tried to get some panels and get it corralled and pushed into the trailer," DeBell said. But, that did not work and it busted out of their makeshift fence, breaking though the perimeter, and jumping over a police car conntining its tour of Lakewood and unincorporated Jefferson County.
DeBell was worried at what his 400-pound animal might do. "It was away from the herd, so it was just plain scared," DeBell said. "It would've gone through anything, over anything, and around anything, just to get away."Lakewood Police corneded it in the backyard of a home. It rammed a parked pick-up truck, knocked over a cemented-in basketball hoop, and nearly knocked down a privacy fence when police decided that was enough.
An officer shot and killed the bison around 2:15 p.m. near 1st and Flora. "I gave the directive to do that," DeBell said. "Because, I didn't want anybody to get hurt.""He was jumping around the patrol cars here, busting through that fence and we had civillians getting in the way. It was a dangerous situation," said Sergeant Creighton Bates, Lakewood Police.
An animal control officer was within a block with a tranquilizer gun when the bison was killed."We couldn't understand why they weren't going to use a tranquilizer," said Irene Smith, witness. "We were told by one of the park rangers that it wouldn't have done any good and right now I don't understand why.""If it would've gotten hit by a tranquilizer, I believe it would've started running again and who knows where it would've gone then," DeBell said.DeBell said he is happy with the outcome because no people were hurt.
Reba Sheehan owns the yard where the bison was killed. She said, "Sometimes you just have to give up and do what is best for the public."The Colorado Division of Wildlife and the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office were trying to help to capture the animal.
