WYOMING – Powell game warden Chris Queen was cleared of any wrongdoing in the killing of a grizzly bear last fall in the Sunlight Basin outside of Cody.
After reviewing the case, Park County Prosecutor Bryan Skoric said evidence pointed toward self-defense and Queen was left with “no other option” but to shoot the bear. “While unfortunate that a grizzly bear with three cubs was killed, your investigation leads to no other conclusion that this was an act of natural self-defense by Chris Queen,” Skoric recently wrote to DCI.
Queen was off-duty hunting elk in the area at the time of the chance encounter. He had his rifle in hand as well as a holstered canister of bear spray. Queen is a believer in bear spray. In fact, he had used is effectively against a bear years ago.
Skoric’s determination was that Queen did not have time to switch out rifle for spray and he could have been killed if he had taken the time to try.
The female grizzly killed by Queen was known to Game and Fish as 423. She is believed to have been 21 years old. She had three cubs. Investigators and wildlife managers decided to leave the cubs onsite, feeling their best chance for survival was being left in the wild.
According to DCI documents, Queen first refrained from firing during a bluff charge by the sow on October 25, 2017. He began to retreat and felt the situation was over but the bear charged again and this time, from experience, Queen said he knew it was no bluff.
He fired once, hitting the bear in the head and neck. It dropped dead instantly.
