A lifelong hunter, Keown said he didn’t know black bears were protected and doesn’t know much about bears in general. He said he thought the one in his yard could be a grizzly because of its brown fur.

Yamnitz notes that not all black bears are black. They can have cinnamon-colored, blond or light brown fur. They are much smaller than grizzly bears and shaped differently, he said. More importantly, Yamnitz said, grizzly bears have never lived in the wild in Missouri.

After Keown spotted the black bear, he opened the front door to take its picture, but it ran off, Keown said. He said he called the conservation agent who had cited him previously for failing to have deer tags, but he got an answering machine. He said he called the conservation department’s tips line but also got a voicemail. (Yamnitz said he wasn’t able to verify either call.)

Keown said he then grabbed his gun and went into the woods to track the bear. After he killed it, he said he had help loading it onto a four-wheeler, but he refused to say who helped him.

“I’m not an evil, mean person. I love animals,” he said. “I did it for one reason: For my son, because he plays in this road and rides his bike up and down this road.”

The boy was inside the house when the bear walked by.