SAND LAKE, Mich. State officials have justified the killing of a black bear and say the man who shot the bear will not be ticketed. Bill Tippett was teaching his 15-year-old son Steven and 14-year-old nephew Tyler Smith how to hunt wild turkey on private land near Sand Lake on Tuesday when the shooting happened.

The 47-year-old Tippett says the bear was running toward his nephew and he shot the bear once. Then the bear began running toward his son, so he shot it again.

The Kentwood man reported the shooting to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

Officials say hunting black bear is illegal in Kent County, but state law allows people to shoot wild animals in self-defense if there is imminent danger.

Most likely the bear came into the call looking for a easy meal. I guess a 12 ga with bird shot worked on this bear.

I'm not saying the guy is lying or anything in this situation, but the whole story seems fishy to me.

I live about 20 minutes from the area, and hunt even closer, so I've seen reports on the news. Apparently he was up and walking with the 2 kids when the bear came through. Teaching them to walk around in an open field during late May for turkeys? Also, the bear was being run by a dog that lived nearby, so it doesn't seem like the bear's first choice would be to head directly toward these hunters. He says the bear got too close for comfort and he shot it, but with his turkey load, and 2 shots killed the bear.

It doesn't seem like a very plausable situation, but I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Bears keep creeping closer and closer south here in Michigan, and I know its just a matter of time before I see one.

One 'self defense ' shooting of a bear in NJ got the shooter in trouble when the autopsy showed it had been shot in the back !! To some any bear is attacking them !!

While out hunting moose my buddy did his famous cow moose call and what popped out of the bush??? Yup, a nice cinnamon bear my other buddy shot the bear because it was headed for the first guy and was "obviously intent on doing damage" The sad thing is the bear was on the other side of the river!! There never was any danger. I think a lot of self defense stories we hear are from trigger happy or otherwise inexperienced individuals. Just because you see a bear within rifle range doesn't mean you're in iminent danger. It does mean to be on your toes and be ready. I wonder how many bears we pass by in the bush and never see "hide nor hair of" but also never consider that we're in iminent danger. It almost seems to me a bit of a scaredy cat thing to do-shooting bears on site because we feel threatened.

the chef

Here's another case of hysteria - Last month the Orangetown school district [Rockland Co NY ] had a lockdown of all 3,000 kids all day when a bear was sighted a few miles away !!!!

Remember that we are not talking directly to the man (that shot the bear), but reading the account given by a newspaper reporter.

With every telling of a story away from the original source the story will get a bit jumbled.

For whatever reason a bear got too close to a man with youth nearby and he did what he thought he needed to do in the moment. Having A)been in some tight spots and B) had the media involved in the accounting of the situation, I'm going to side with this guy. You can bet that this was investigated and the people on the ground there said "it was justified".

For the most part I like bears and will give them the right-of-way. But should one get too close to me and mine and I'm the alpha male on scene the bear is going down. I'd much rather explain what I did rather than what I didn't do.