The Pennsylvania Game Commission announced on Friday that a bald eagle was discovered shot dead in Erie County.

A state game warden found the bald eagle on Thursday night near the border with Ohio. The gunman is still at large.

The commission has asked the public for its help in the investigation of the crime, which can carry substantial fines and up to two years in jail.

The bald eagle was removed from the endangered species list in 2007 after seeing increases in the species' population the past 40 years. The bald eagle faced a drastic decline in population in the 1970s.

Congress passed a federal law in 1940 that made it illegal to kill bald eagles, and there are still several other acts that protect them.