OregonStatePolice
Incident:SP17393843
Incidentdetails:
Incident Type:

FW - Hunting

Incident time:

10/27/201709:00 - 10/27/2017 09:30

Reported time:

10/27/201711:33

Incident location:

2125UNION ORUSA

Incident status:

Inactive

Summary:

OnOctober 27,2017aphone callwasfieldedbyLaGrande Troopers inregards toawolfbeingshotandkilled
intheStarkey hunting unitnearLaGrande. Aninvestigation revealed anelkhunter encountered threewolves,
oneofthewolves advanced towards thehunter and atapproximately 27yards thehunter shotandkilledthe
wolf. Onlyoneshotwasfiredbythehunter. Thehunter wasnotinjured andtheotherwolves werepresumably
scared awaybytheshot. Itwasdetermined thatthiswasaself-defense incident.

InvolvedPersons:
Name:

SCOTT, BRIAN RAYMale
Gender:

Classification:

Mentioned05/29/
1979
DOB:

InvolvedProperty:
l

Gamebig /Recovered; Safekeeping / GamebigWolfWOLF

InvolvedOfficers:
l
l

Reporting Officer/CaseLead /MCDOWELL, MARCUS / #43013 / OSP /Officer / LAGRANDE- ENTERPRISE F&W
Dispatcher/TC2 /RUSH, CAROLYN / #49495 / OSP /Nonsworn / DISPATCH

Reports:
Generalreport:
Author:

43013 MCDOWELL, MARCUS10/29/
Report time: 2017 12:02

Entered by:

43013 MCDOWELL, MARCUS10/29/
Entered time:2017 12:02

Narrative:

OREGONSTATEPOLICENARRATIVE REPORT
CASE NUMBER:
SP17- 393843
DISTRIBUTION: Oregon State Police/Union County District Attorney
NARRATIVE: OnOctober 27,2017 Iwasonduty, inuniform, displaying abadge, anddriving a
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 marked Oregon State Police FishandWildlife truck.
Atapproximately 11:25a.m.Ireceived aphone callfromthefrontdeskinregards toareport ofawolf
beingkilled intheStarkey hunting unitnearUSFS road2125 (Union County, Oregon). Iobtained the
reporting parties information andbegan driving thatdirection fromtheCatherine Creek hunting unit. I
made twophone calls (11:27a.m.and11:33a.m. –noanswer) tothereporting party while inroute and
leftonemessage. At11:41a.m.Ireceived aphone callfromthereporting party who identified himself
asBrian Scott. Ihadasixminute conversation withMr.Scott while inroute. Mr.Scott was notably
shaken while talking withhimonthephone. Mr.Scott briefly described anencounter withwolves and
toldme, insubstance, thathekilledoneofthem inself- defense. Mr.Scottwas confident onthephone
thatitwasnotacoyote hehadkilled butindeed awolf.
Icontacted mysupervisor byphone, Sgt. Chris Hawkins, andbriefed himonthesituation. Ithen
contacted ODFW andmade arrangements forODFW District Biologist Leonard Erickson tomeet meat
thehunter’ scamp.
Iarrived atBrian Scott’ scamp, which waslocated onUSFS road2125, atapproximately 12:15p.m.I
wasimmediately approached byasubject who lateridentified himself withanOregon Driver’ sLicense
asBrianRayScott. Mr. Scott was talking extremely fastandheappeared tophysically shaken. Mr. Scott
began talking about whathadhappened andwalked metotheedge oftheircamp andpointed inthe
general direction ofwhere thewolfwould be.ItoldMr.Scott thatIwould liketogetarecorded
statement about whathadoccurred andheagreed. Thethree other occupants ofcamp politely removed
themselves from theareawhile Italked withMr.Scott.
Mr.Scott andIstepped tothefront ofmytruck where Ipointed outthecamera andtoldhimthatIwas
going toturniton.Ibegan therecorded interview at12:36p.m.andtoldMr.Scott thatwewere being
recorded. Inoted thatMr.Scott wasveryconfident thatitwasawolfandhereplied, “ Yessir,it’ sin
excess of80pounds”. Iasked Mr.Scott totellmewhathappened. Hetoldme, insubstance, thathe
began hishuntonfootatapproximately 7:15a.m.thatmorning directly fromcamp. Mr.Scott toldmeas
hewasneartheUSFS350road “ Istarted toseesomething moving around meonseveral occasions. I
couldnotidentify whatwasmoving around me. There arealotofcoyotes outhere. Iworked mywayup
intoatimberline andsatthere for20or30minutes max. Istarted toworkmywaydown anopen
meadow andofftomyleftiswhen Isaw thefirstofwhatIassumed would have been acoyote. Hewas
running atmewhich isveryodd. Directly behind thatwasthesecond one. Thefirstonewaslarger. The
firstonewasmaking hiswayaround meandthesecond oneseemed tobefollowing thefirstone. The
thirdonewasrunning directly atme.Idefinitely feltlikeshehadtargeted meandwasrunning directly
atmetomakecontact. Ifeared formylife. Itwasunnerving. Ididn’ thavealotoftimetoreact andsoI
shotthethirdone. Iwatched theother tworundown intothetimber towards thebottom ofthe350road.
Within seconds there washowling down even further away fromwhere theother twowere (indicating
therewere more thanthethree hesaw)”.
Mr.Scott toldme, insubstance, thathemade hisway backtocamp togethishunting partners tohelp
identify whathehaddown. Mr. Scott toldme, insubstance, after hishunting partners agreed thatitwas
awolfthatwaswhen hecontacted ODFW. Iasked Mr.Scott howmany shots hefiredandhetold
me, “ One”. Mr.Scott described hishunting weapon asa30.06andhisammunition as “ 175or178grain
Hornady ballistic tipbiggame”. Iasked Mr.Scott, insubstance, toestimate howmany yards hewas
away fromthewolfwhenheshotit.Hetoldme, “ 20to30yards andIthink30yards would bemax”.
Mr.Scott continued bytelling me, “ AfterIdidshoot Ididn’ twant tobeoutintheopen anymore. SoI
kindofwent backupabove meandthat’ sprobably where wearegoing tofindourshellcasing. That’ s
where Iended upkind ofcomposing myself togettheheckoutofdodge”.
Ishutmycamera offandended theinterview andprepared myequipment forthehike. Afewminutes
laterLeonard Erickson withODFW arrived andthetwoofusalong withthefourhunters whowere
currently atcamptraveled towards theincident location. Oneofthehunters drove anATVtoassist in
therecovery ofthewolf.
Afterarriving attheincident scene Leonard Erickson examined thewolf. Mr.Scott showed methe
location where hestood when heshot. Hetoldme, insubstance, thewolfdidnotmove after itwasshot
anddiedwhere itwasstruck. Hetoldme, insubstance, theevent wasonecontinuous motion ofhim
screaming atthewolfasitrantoward him, pulling uptherifle, seeing hairinthescope, andpulling the
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 trigger.
Iused aVortex rangefinder toshoot thedistance fromwhere thewolflaytowhere theshot wastaken. It
registered adistance of27yards which isconsistent totheestimate thehunter hadgivenme.
Ithenexamined thewolfforentry andexitwounds. Iconcluded thebullet entered thefrontrightportion
ofthewolfandexited theleftportion ofthewolf.
Withthehelpofthehunters thewolfwasloaded ontoablue plastic tarpandwecarried ittotheawaiting
ATVwhere itwas thentransported backtomyvehicle. At4:10p.m.Iplaced thewolfintotheOSP
freezer anditwilllaterbereleased toODFW.
CASE STATUS:
Inactive.

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