A cougar
© DreamstimeA cougar
The quiet of a recreational vehicle park along the lazy running Big Thompson River west of Loveland was shattered Wednesday afternoon when law enforcement shot and wounded a mountain lion that attacked a resident and a female deputy.

The animal was later killed by state wildlife officials.

The attacked occurred just after 2 p.m. at the Riverview RV Park, 2444 River Rim Road.

An eyewitness said the Larimer County Sheriff's Office deputy is lucky to be alive. She was transported to an area hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, according to LCSO spokesman David Moore.



Park resident Gregory Scott Paul said he heard sirens coming up the road when officers stopped on a bridge at the entrance of the park off U.S. Highway 34. He went to see what was going on when officers running down the road told him to get into his trailer because there was a mountain lion. The female deputy pointed to the mountain lion crouched underneath the trailer next to Paul's.

"It started creeping towards them a little bit and they took three or four shots at it,'' said Paul, pointing to where a bullet hole hit the trailer's septic tank line. "It lunged at the lady deputy from about 10 feet away. She put her arm up and it got her on the right shoulder. Luckily she did that 'cause if not it probably would have gotten her right on the neck.''

He said the lion, which he believed to have been struck by the officer's bullets, then went under another trailer, popped back out and took off farther down the park near the river where officers shot several more times at it after warning residents to stay inside.

Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers were able to track the mountain lion, which Paul estimated at a little more than 6 feet, to a nearby home on Black Crow Lane across the Big Thompson River where they shot and killed the animal.

LCSO deputies and Colorado Parks and Wildlife officers originally responded to a report of a mountain lion attack of a person nearby at 2100 River Rim Drive just before 2 p.m. LCSO said initial reports were that the person sustained injuries that were not life-threatening.

Officers spotted the mountain lion and tracked it to near the Big Thompson River by the park entrance, which is across U.S. 34 from Big Thompson Elementary School.

Jennifer Hall, the park's front-office manager, said the mountain lion came within about 4 feet of employees working by the river. Soon thereafter, Hall was on her golf cart heading from her camper to the front office when she saw four or five officers with their guns drawn. She went into the office and heard gunshots.

"I just immediately started freaking out because you hear gunshots and you think maybe it was a resident,'' Hall said.

Park residents Logan Lebleu, 9, and Gavin White, 11, said they were playing by the entrance bridge when they saw officers with guns drawn, who told them to get back to their camper. From the safety of the camper they watched the scene unfold.

"I was scared. I ran like Forrest Gump to my trailer,'' Lebleu said. "When I peeked behind my camper, I saw that mountain lion on top of a female officer. That was crazy. I never thought that would happen.''

CPW, which is leading the investigation, tweeted that the animal was killed due to the threat it posed to human safety, and that samples from the agency would be collected for disease and DNA analysis.

CPW said this marks Colorado's 23rd mountain lion attack on humans since 1990.

Wednesday's attack was less than 10 miles from the February 2019 mountain lion attack of a Fort Collins man, who killed the young lion in self-defense at Horsetooth Mountain Open Space.

Last year: Runner kills mountain lion in self-defense after attack in Horsetooth Mountain Park west of Fort Collins