Police: Man Confronting Bear Accidentally Kills Brother

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – Authorities say a man in southern Oregon trying to protect his home from a bear instead fatally shot his brother by mistake, then killed himself.

Josephine County Undersheriff Travis Snyder says the man called 911 around 7 a.m. Tuesday and told dispatchers he had “accidentally shot his brother while loading a gun” after being startled by the bear.

The Oregonian/OregonLive reports deputies went to the home in Sunny Valley, an unincorporated community in the southwest corner of the state.

There they found a man dead from a gunshot wound.

Snyder says they checked the residence and found a second man who had died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Their names weren’t released.

More about: