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A wildlife officer toting a loaded gun and chasing a deer past a schoolyard in Draper has raised some eyebrows and some questions.
A motorist in the middle of it all was disturbed by what he saw, and today wildlife officials launched an internal investigation to find out whether an armed technician followed the right procedure.
But now, differing points of view have emerged about the way in which the wildlife officer chased the deer.
Carl Berg was driving down 1300 East about 3:30 yesterday afternoon. Just as he approached a school playground, a deer darted toward his red SUV. "[It] just came shooting out between the school, hit the side of my car," he said.
His car has dents to prove it. "Back quarter panel, and it hit the door here," Berg said. "So I pulled over, and when I did, I looked in my rear-view mirror. I saw a female run across the road with a rifle."
Berg says school had just let out a few minutes before at Summit Academy Elementary School. The woman with the rifle was a state wildlife technician.
"She indicated to me that they had received several calls that a deer had been injured and she was trying to put the deer down," Berg said.
He believes another car hit the deer first. He doesn't know if the technician shot it just before it ran toward his car. After his crash, the buck kept running, with one leg missing.
Berg says the wildlife officer and the deer were within 20 feet of the school. "There were kids up and down the sidewalk. You know, parents in the carpool lines picking their kids up and things like that," Berg said.
He says the deer was a very big four-point buck. Running wild, it could have easily mowed down a child. "When do you call off a police chase when you're chasing a car? When do you call off a deer chase when it's in a neighborhood and it's around children?" Berg wondered aloud.
But tonight, another witness who lives nearby had a different take on the story. Barry Skinner says at no time did the wildlife officer act inappropriately.
"[She was] extremely professional. I talked with her for that hour there, and every time I was walking around there, she was very professional, very concerned about the public being around her and with her with the gun," Skinner said.
Skinner said he saw no children close by, and the wildlife worker was never closer than 150 feet from the school.
The state wildlife agency refused comment for now. They've just started their investigation to see if what happened is in sync with their policy and training.
Because the agency isn't talking, we don't know if the deer was finally shot or ran away.
E-mail: jhollenhorst@ksl.com
