Wildlife management is the Conservation Officer Service’s responsibility, Maple Ridge RCMP said in an email, but officers are sometimes first on scene and have to conduct an initial risk assessment. In this case, that assessment found a high degree of risk to the public, and the decision was made to fire. Asked what informed the belief that this was the bear from the attack, the detachment wrote that officers were acting on the best information they had in a dynamic and unfolding situation. It did not say who recovered the dead bear, writing that it was a question for conservation officers and that it believed they had recovered it.