[gunsmith]

does anyone have a link or remember this case?
in the 1980's a kid climbed into the polar bear
cage in NY City Central Park Zoo
and was promptly attacked by one of the bears
A cop went in to save him and killed the bears with
his handgun.
Everyone was angry at the cop for killing the bears:fire:
but does anyone have a link or info as to what gun
the cop had? how many shots to take out 2 polar bears?

[Nick96]

I vaguely remember the story, but none of the specifics. Given it was the 1980's and in NY - my best guess would be .38 Spl. Maybe 9MM. I wouldn't think anything more exotic than those two rounds given the place & time.

[mete]

My memory of it is this. Two very stupid kids were harassing the bears, throwing rocks etc . Then they did something VERY stupid, they climbed into the cage. This was all after hours I think. The bears were defending themselves, they weren't mean and nasty. The cops used a 12 gage not a .38.

[Penman]

There was a case many years ago, of a polar bear reaching through the bars of a cage and grabbing a guy who had been teasing the bear. A police officer first tried striking the bear across the nose with his baton, and when that didn't work, IIRC he shot it in the neck with his .38, killing it. The load was a +P 158 grn LSWCHP. Mas Ayoob wrote of this in one of his earliest gun magazine articles, a review of the +P load. Sounds like two different incidents under discussion here.