The Windsor Journal

The presence a black bear in his back yard prompted a Poquonock Avenue octogenarian to fetch his rifle and take aim at the animal, even after it scampered up a nearby tree.

After the animal fell mortally wounded in front of the Windsor Animal Control Officer who was nearby trying to scare it off, John Rocha, 82, was charged with fourth degree negligent hunting since he was within 500 feet of nearby occupied dwellings when he fired his .30-caliber hunting rifle.

Rocha will need to go to court to answer the charges brought by the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP)’s Environmental Conservation (EnCon) Police.

Although black bears, whose numbers are booming in New England, are not considered endangered it is still illegal to kill them, state DEEP officials say.

The Windsor bear-human encounter might have been expected. Nearby residents spotted the female black bear and its cubs all summer here as they rummaged around backyards, attracted to bird feeders. But only one cub was with the mother bear Tuesday.

The incident was the talk of the town with some residents siding with the elderly resident, an experienced hunter, and some contenting the bears ought to have been left alone to do what bears do.

In the state’s view, Rocha was in the wrong, and he obtained a lawyer to defend himself.

But the bear encounter is one that is likely to become increasingly more common in Windsor and other Connecticut towns as wildlife populations rebound around New England with the demise of farmland and re-growth of woodlands, the preferred habitat of Ursus Americanus.

As is nearly always the case, in the meeting between human and bear, human won.

Officer Thomas LePore of the Windsor Police Department recounted the incident Thursday:

“Around 1:10 pm yesterday we a resident called in and told us that two were two bear in the Poquonock Avenue area. The animal control officer was dispatched and he saw two bears, so he pointed his pyrotechnic device, which is called a banger- it's a small weapon that shoots a firework, an M80 firecracker to scare the animal out of the area. The larger of the two bears ran immediately towards a backyard into a tree line, and the little bear stayed and didn't run. The animal control officer returned to his vehicle and got his shotgun that is equipped with rubber slugs that are nonlethal. So he shot the little bear in the hind quarters, and it ran towards the bigger bear which was in the woods. As he walked back to continue scaring the bears out of the area, that's when he heard a gunshot from his left, and he saw the elderly male who was identified after that as Mr. Rocha, and saw the big bear fall from the tree that it had climbed. The animal control officer yelled at him [Mr. Rocha] before he shot the second bear. He called for assistance from the officers on the shift, and we took the weapon from Mr. Rocha, and the DET was notified because the bear had been killed, and they came and they took over the investigation.”

According to the DEEP, the dead bear was 5-6 years old and weighed approximately 250 lbs. There was damage to Rocha’s bird feeder.

DEEP spokesman Dennis Shain said Rocha was charged not just for killing the bear, but for discharging his weapon too close to occupied homes.

Since the state has the discretion to regulate what can and cannot be hunted, and bears are not on the state’s list of game, they cannot be hunted legally, according to Shain.

“There are no provisions for hunting black bear in Connecticut, so it is illegal to shoot them,” he explained. “The only exception is that we would exercise what we call 'enforcement discretion' and not be likely to charge someone with illegal shooting if a bear was reasonably judged to be an imminent threat to someone's safety.”

“Negligent hunting” is the term DEEP uses if there is a violation of the rules and regulations regarding hunting seasons and/or governing terms and locations under which you can discharge a firearm – in this case, firing a gun within 500 feet of an occupied building. Officer LePore said Rocha used a .30 caliber rifle. Although he killed the bear with one shot, if he missed the bullet could have traveled far in excess of the intended target in a populated suburban area.

John Rocha is a distinguished-looking older man who lives in a well-kept house abutting the Poquonock cemetery. An American flag flies in the front yard. Although his lawyer asked him not to comment on the case, he told the Windsor Journal there was one thing he wanted to say: During the incident he was terrified.

“These bears can shred someone to pieces,” he pointed out.

That is also where the case rests. DEEP charged him, alleging that the bear was fleeing the scene and posed no danger. Rocha's said his phone is ringing off the hook with angry callers.

Lawyer Salvatore Bonano plans on representing Rocha at the Superior Court in Enfield Jan. 17. Bonano declined to talk about the case.

“The facts have not been in yet,” he commented. “I look forward to see what the full picture shows. I stand by my client and he asserts innocence. I stand by him and we'll see what the facts divulge.”

Rather than be afraid of the bears, residents need to take steps to remove food sources that attract these voracious eaters. Often the bears are less afraid of people than people are of them.

Officer LePore says those who live in the area should understand that “the wildlife is here, and we can coexist with them.

“Obviously, you don't want to leave your garbage cans out,” he notes. “If you have a bird feeder, and you do have bears coming into your yard, you want to take away all the attractive that will bring the bears into your yard. You go on a picnic and you don't leave your food uncovered thinking that flies aren't going to land on it. You have to take measures to protect those things.”

Why aren’t the bears hibernating for the winter?

According to the DEEP’s Shain, not all bears hibernate all the time.....some are awake and roam for food in winter at various times. More likely to happen when, as is the case now, there is no snow cover making food more easily available.

There are more than 500 bears in Connecticut, DEEP estimates, most of them in the western part of the state. But there some in the east too, and they are expanding in numbers and range as they are healthy, breed and have young and have no real predators.

Numbers are still on the side of human beings. But the last time a bear was shot in Connecticut was five years ago in April, 2007 in Barkhamsted when a man was charged after killing a bear on his property.

The younger bear, which is over 100 pounds and old enough to take care of itself, was tranquilized by DEEP officers and taken to another location.

Hopefully it learned to avoid humans and bird feeders.

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