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Members of the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection Environmental Conservation Police and Southbury Police Department were dispatched to a Pascoe Road shortly after 6 p.m. on May 24, where there was a report of a man who had fired a gun at a bear.
Upon arrival at the scene, police said that officers arrived at the home and found Southbury resident Joshua Gendron, 43, who openly admitted to shooting the bear in his mother-in-law’s home, where there was allegedly “numerous bear attractants placed in the yard including bird feeders, open birdseed, bread crumbs and apples.”
According to police, Gendron told investigators that he was “summoned by his mother-in-law to her house regarding a bear in the yard,” at which point, he brought a rifle and pistol to the home.
Police said he attempted to scare the bear away from the home by shooting the pistol int he direction of the bear, and when the bear didn’t flee, he took the rifle and shot the bear. Gendron did not have a legal pistol permit when he fired the gun.
The bear was taken to the Sessions Woods Wildlife unit for a necropsy by a biologist. Gendron was arrested at the scene and charged with carrying a pistol without a permit, unlawful discharge of a firearm and illegal taking of a bear. Following arraignment, Gendron was released on $1,000 bail and is due back in court on June 5 to answer the charges.
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