A Fort Simpson man who was accidentally shot by an Environment and Natural Resources officer worries the incident will happen again.
This comes after an RCMP investigation concluded the officer took reasonable actions to stop an aggressive bear in the community.
As a result, police are not pressing charges.
The incident took place in Fort Simpson in September 2019.
Dennis Nelner, who lived in the area, was sitting in his home when bullet crashed through his home and ricocheted around the room before lodging in his thigh.
Nelner says he isn’t surprised or disappointed by the RCMP’s findings, but he is concerned ENR will not take steps to ensure this situation doesn’t repeat itself.
“I just hope there’s some changes,” Nelner says, “because this incident will happen again if they don’t.”
Joslyn Oosenbrug, spokesperson for ENR, says the department continues to regularly train and assess officers firearm proficiency and is looking for ways to reduce wildlife-human conflicts.
“The way this incident unfolded was not predictable, and the outcome was exceptionally unlikely and very unfortunate,” Oosenbrug wrote in an email.
She adds, the department is in agreement with the RCMP’s findings as its internal investigation had the same conclusion last fall.
“The officer followed ENR policies and procedures for dealing with wildlife-human conflicts, and his actions in response to the charging bear were justified for the preservation of human life,” she wrote in an email. “It’s very unfortunate that a resident of Fort Simpson was injured during this incident.”
Additionally, Nelner says he is disappointed to have not received any sort of apology from the officer.
“I haven’t been really pushing it, but it’s just common courtesy,” he says.
Oosenbrug says ENR’s Regional Superintendent visited the man at his home the first week after the incident to see how he was doing and wish him a speedy recovery.
However, Nelner says his main concern is public safety and the situation has left him confused as to what to do if a bear comes near his house again.
“I’m hesitant to phone, because I don’t feel secure that things have changed,” he concludes.
Oosenbrug says although the department is confident in its officer firearm proficiency, there have been a few changes in Fort Simpson.
She says officers participated in additional firearms practice at the local rifle range this spring and have been using new live capture traps to remove bears safely from residential areas, wherever possible.
Clarification: The headline on this article has been changed as it previously reflected an unsubstantiated criticism of ENR’s training capabilities. An earlier version of this article did not include that ENR says a member visited Nelner after the incident.
