NEWTON, Mass. (WHDH)–Some people in Newton woke up with a surprise. A big black bear made its way up a tree and police were forced to shoot it down.
A black bear ran up a tree and found himself in a rut surrounded by firefighters and police.
“Actually I was sleeping on the porch, and so I had heard like the whole commotion,” said Erin Greeley.
“Right when I came out to this area, I saw there were many police cars and actually a lot of people watching,” said Adriana Bauza.
It was by all accounts a weird way to wake up in Newton.
“It was just, I mean, not normal. Completely unreal,” said another Newton resident.
And from the start the situation looked shaky.
“It didn’t really look like that tree could hold bear because all of those branches are really, really skinny,” said Emily Powerdly who was concerned about the bear.
The one-year-old bear weighed between 100 and 125 pounds and was perched near a number of houses on one side, the mass pike on his other side.
“When we see coyotes runs down the street that's bad enough. A bear is, pretty crazy,” said Mary Beth Genucci, who was surprised by the bear.
Officers tried to tranquilize him but that wasn't enough to get the bear down.
“It was a hard mission from where the bear was,” Bauza said.
For safety reasons, environmental police said they were left with no choice but to shut down one lane of the mass pike and shoot the bear.
“I’m glad they got the bear. And there's not bear running around anymore. It was sad they weren't able to tranquilize it and take it somewhere else,” another resident said.
There have been recent sighting black bears in Lincoln and Waltham. Environmental police are not sure whether those are same bears that ended up here.