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Video shows bear cubs native to Alaska found wandering 3,614 miles away — in Florida
A Florida deputy came upon a strange sight when responding to a recent call in Baker County at 3:30 in the morning.
A man said that he spotted two bear cubs on the side of the road that didn’t look like black bears native to the area. When the deputy arrived on scene, she met the man and the bears, who were looking to explore.
“They want to check out everything. They’re completely friendly,” the unidentified man can be heard saying.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office
Video shared by the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office shows the encounter, including the bears approaching the deputy and man, and climbing on their cars.
The deputy and man both speculated that the animals were brown bears or grizzly bears. According to the sheriff’s office, those thoughts were correct: The animals were Kodiak cubs, a unique subspecies.
Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office
They’re also native to Alaska – which meant the cubs found by sheriff’s office were about 3,614 miles away from home.
The deputy contacted Florida Fish and Wildlife, who were able to transport the cubs to a secure location for safekeeping. The agency also launched an investigation into how the cubs came to be in Florida. The sheriff’s office said that they chose not to share the video of the encounter, which happened on Dec. 5, until the investigation was completed.
Florida Fish and Wildlife determined that the bears had escaped from “an inadequate enclosure at a residence on Old River Road where a self-proclaimed bear trainer lives,” according to the sheriff’s office. That resident, who was not identified by the sheriff’s office, now faces “various Florida wildlife violations” related to the investigation’s findings.
According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, the bears live exclusively on the Kodiak Archipelago in Alaska, and have been isolated from other bears for over a millennium. There are about 3,500 such bears in the area. Kodiaks are larger than brown or grizzly bears, according to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and male bears of the species can be over 10 feet tall when standing on their hind legs.
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Wisconsin school shooter was in contact with California man plotting his own attack, court documents say
The shooter who killed a student and teacher at a religious school in Wisconsin brought two guns to the school and was in contact with a man in California whom authorities say was planning to attack a government building, according to authorities and court documents that became public Wednesday.
Police were still investigating why the 15-year-old student at Abundant Life Christian School in Madison shot and killed a fellow student and teacher on Monday before shooting herself, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes told the Associated Press Wednesday. Two other students who were shot remained in critical condition on Wednesday.
A Southern California judge issued a restraining order Tuesday under California’s gun red flag law against a 20-year-old Carlsbad man. The order requires the man to turn his guns and ammunition into police within 48 hours unless an officer asks for them sooner because he poses an immediate danger to himself and others.
Carlsbad is located just north of San Diego.
According to the order, the man told FBI agents that he had been messaging Natalie Rupnow, the Wisconsin shooter, about attacking a government building with a gun and explosives. The order doesn’t say what building he had targeted or when he planned to launch his attack. It also doesn’t detail his interactions with Rupnow except to state that the man was plotting a mass shooting with her.
CBS’ San Diego affiliate KFMB-TV reported that law enforcement searched the man’s home Tuesday night after the order was signed by the judge.
Police, with the assistance of the FBI, were scouring online records and other resources and speaking with the shooter’s parents and classmates in an attempt to determine a motive for the shooting, Barnes told the AP.
Police don’t know if anyone was targeted in the attack or if the attack had been planned in advance, the chief said. Police said the shooting occurred in a classroom where a study hall was taking place involving students from several grades.
“I do not know if if she planned it that day or if she planned it a week prior,” Barnes said. “To me, bringing a gun to school to hurt people is planning. And so we don’t know what the premeditation is.”
On a Madison city website providing details about the shooting, police disclosed Wednesday that two guns were found at the school, but only one was used in the shooting. A law enforcement source previously told CBS News the weapon used appears to have been a 9 mm pistol.
Barnes told the AP that he did not know how the suspected shooter obtained the guns and he declined to say who purchased them, citing the ongoing investigation.
No decisions have been made about whether Rupnow’s parents might be charged in relation to the shooting, but they have been cooperating, Barnes told the AP.
Abundant Life is a nondenominational Christian school that offers prekindergarten classes through high school. About 420 students attend the institution.
The Dan County Medical Examiner’s Office identified the two people killed Wednesday as 42-year-old Erin West and 14-year-old Rubi Vergara.
An online obituary on a local funeral site stated Vergara was a freshman who leaves behind her parents, one brother, and a large extended family. It described her as “an avid reader” who “loved art, singing and playing keyboard in the family worship band.”
West’s exact position with the school was unclear.
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