With this winter's heavy snowfall, seeing moose move into town isn't unusual. But on Tuesday, when two moose positioned themselves near Homer High School's front door, administrators and staff became concerned about student safety.
Principal Ron Keffer, who arrived at the school before 8 a.m., said there were several moose in the area.
"In the end, it kind of developed to the point where there were two right in front of the door, hanging out on the right side, by where the bushes are," Keffer said.
As efforts were made to get arriving students safely inside, calls for assistance were placed to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game and the Homer Police Department. Police first attempted to shoo away the moose by yelling at them and approaching them, said Homer Police Chief Mark Robl. Police also attempted to drive the moose away by using their sirens, Keffer said. That proved unsuccessful, according to Keffer.
At approximately 10 a.m., police were called back to the school. Homer Police Officer Stacy Luck and Lt. Randy Rosencrans responded.
"Two officers came up and brought with them a paint gun, but, instead of paint, it has pepper spray," Keffer said.
Being struck with the pepper spray was enough to make the larger of the two moose leave the area, but not a young bull moose. The calf refused to leave and got more and more aggressive, Robl said. Gabe Graham, an aide at the school, said the moose was reluctant to leave a spot against a school wall with a row of classroom windows.
"I went into the classroom, told them (students) to stay away from the windows, shut and locked them (the windows)," said Graham, who then held the school door open so the police officers could make a quick retreat if the moose became aggressive.
Police shot at the two moose with Tasers, a device that shoots electrically charged darts and is designed to incapacitate people.
"That didn't work," Robl said.
After being struck with a Taser, the moose appeared irritated.
"It had its hackles back, its head down and began to come at the officers," Graham said. "They didn't have time to get in the door."
Police made the decision to kill the young bull when it charged Luck and Rosencrans and chased them up the steps, Robl said.
"They felt they were definitely in danger of being hurt," he said.
Rosencrans was armed with a 12-gauge shotgun loaded with slugs.
"They fired two shots to the neck and the moose kind of appeared to be stunned," Graham said. "It stood there, shaking its head and blood began to spray out of its mouth. At that point, I yelled, 'Kill it. Put it out of its misery.'"
Rosencrans fired four shots total, all hitting the moose, Robl said. Police did not fire warning shots.
A third shot knocked the moose down the stairs, where a final shot killed it, according to Graham. He and a school custodian then dragged the carcass to the parking lot, and the custodian worked to clean up the scene.
At about that time, Thomas McDonough, Fish and Game wildlife biologist, arrived at the school.
"I got a call after the moose was shot," McDonough said. "By the time I got to the site, it was over. The calf was shot and the cow was not around."
The moose meat was donated to a charity, Robl said.
Glen Szymoniak, assistant superintendent for the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District, said this is the first time he can recall a moose being shot on school property.
"Having moose on school grounds is always a concern," he said. "We have moose problems every year. You can usually run them off. This is a really unfortunate circumstance where it doesn't seem like anything they tried to do scared the moose off."
Szymoniak said the first concern was student safety.
"I would hate to see a student get trampled, to run out of school, heading to a car or the bus and get stomped by a moose," he said.
Robl said he felt it was unfortunate officers had to kill the moose. He mentioned a similar situation in Anchorage several years where a moose charged and killed a man entering the University of Alaska Anchorage sports center.
"In a situation like this with all the students up there, public safety had to be our primary concern," Robl said. "Putting down animals is the last resort," he added.
Police have had other problems this winter with aggressive moose.
"We do work with Fish and Game throughout the winter for moose problems," Robl said.
McDonough, Fish and Game's only game biologist in Homer, has responded to three calls involving injured moose in recent days.
"When there's a clear public safety concern, the police have to make a quick call," McDonough said. "I support what they did. Sometimes there's not enough time to wait for other personnel and you have to assess the situation when you have pedestrians in an area like that."
Robl advised people to be careful around moose in the winter.
"Moose can get really aggressive this time of year. When they're stressed with food problems and find a good feed patch, they just don't move on," he said.
Calls about aggressive moose are on the top of McDonough's priority list.
"When there's an injured moose or an aggressive moose, I drop everything I'm doing at the time and run out there," he said, adding, "But sometimes I might not be around."
McKibben Jackinsky can be reached at mckibben.jackinsky@homernews.com. Michael Armstrong also contributed to this story.
