Edward Elk (aka Big Boy on FB) Update

The Boulder Police Department has now said that one of their on-duty police officers shot and killed Edward the Elk with a shotgun Tuesday night.  The officer, identified in  a local home-owner's enlarged photo, as S. Carter posed with the elk and then called another off-duty officer, who loaded the elk's body into a pickup truck and took it off to hang and butcher as game.  The on-duty officer did not tell his supervisor that he had shot the elk, which is why the Boulder PD denied knowledge of the act.  The officer now claims that he had watched the elk moving about in the neighborhood, and had made the decision that it was injured and needed to be put out of it's misery.
    Edward had returned to the Mapleton Hill area where he was killed every winter for the past 10 years - the neighborhood was used to his presence, and he was used to the people, dogs, and traffic.  Several points of one horn had been broken off while fighting other bull elk this year, but those were the only things the usual neighbors noted about the elk's appearance. S. Carter apparently reported that the elk was limping, and that was what he based his decision upon.  (Heck, I don't want that officer around our neighborhood!  Old Tripod, the 10-point buck, would be shot by him immediately.  Tripod had a hind-leg broken when he was 2 years old; it didn't heal correctly, and it dangles as a much shorter leg than the others.  Tripod leaps and runs and jumps fences with ease, so there's no need to shoot him.)
  The Department of Wildlife is investigating this killing, as Edward qualified as a "trophy specimen" along with the fact he was killed within the city limits.  There could be a fine levied of up to $10,000 and jail time might also be recommended.  At least his body is being processed for consumption,  It would be a terrible shame to waste that magnificent animal's life...  But that doesn't replace the annual winter visits of Edward the Elk to his neighborhood haunts on Mapleton Hill.

Boulder police officer S. Carter poses with Edward after killing him.