FAIRBANKS — Denali Borough Mayor Dave Talerico shot and killed a grizzly bear when it charged him this week at the Denali Borough Landfill.

“I just feel horrible,” Talerico said.

A taxidermist who examined the hide later discovered the bear had been shot earlier with a bullet from a .22, the mayor said. When he learned the bear had been wounded earlier, Talerico said he felt a little better about his decision to shoot in the interest of public safety — particularly his own at the time.

Marauding bears are an ongoing problem at the Denali Borough landfill, just south of the turnoff to Anderson on the Parks Highway. One evening, Talerico said, as many as seven grizzly bears were in the landfill at one time.

“They came in under the fence,” he said.

The borough spent thousands of dollars to bury chain link fence 2 feet deep into the ground around the perimeter. But this spring, a large grizzly pushed down one section of the fence, opening the pathway to others. The sharp coiled wire on top of the fence didn’t even faze it, Talerico said.

“When we were only dealing with one bear, we would just repair the chain link fence,” the mayor said. Usually, all he has to do is honk the horn on his vehicle to scare the bear away.

Talerico, who is running for a seat in the Alaska State House, routinely stops by the landfill some evenings. He estimated he has been there 15 times since mid-June.

“This is a public place with employees and the public,” he said. “We’d rather not have grizzly bears there.”

On July 28 of last week, Talerico found three grizzly bears at the landfill when he drove in.

He pushed his vehicle horn. One bear ran to the hole in the fence. One stayed on the pile of garbage.

“I opened the door of the SUV and I yelled, ‘Hey bear’,’’ Talerico said.

The first bear ran away through the fence. The second bear charged Talerico, who escaped to the inside of his vehicle with the bear just about 6 feet behind him. When the bear retreated, Talerico got out of the vehicle again, this time with a loaded weapon. He always carries an old 7mm Remington that he has owned since age 14.

He fired a shot and the second bear ran away. The remaining bear ran to the fence, reared up on his hind legs, and stopped.

Talerico fired into the air again.

The bear began walking down the fence line, then turned and charged directly at the mayor.

“He ran right at me, full bore, to the bottom of the slope I was on,” Talerico said. “I killed that bear. I shot and killed it. I got physically ill after that. I don’t have a problem with bear hunters, but this is not a place for a bear to die. But it’s also not the place for an employee or member of the public to get mauled by a grizzly bear. I hated to do it.”

He immediately called Alaska State Troopers, who came to the landfill and saw the damaged fence and the dead bear. The bear weighed about 400 pounds and stood more than 6 feet tall.

Talerico thought the bear was about 100 feet away when he shot. The Fish and Wildlife Trooper told Talerico it was closer to 25 feet, he said.

Alaska State Fish and Game Biologist Don Young said he and fellow workers came to the landfill Thursday night, intending to discourage other bears from hanging around, but none showed up.

The borough is now in the process of installing electrical fencing.

“The main thing is to get it secured so there is no future bear problem,” Young said.

Talerico seemed to still be a bit shaken by the incident, even two days later.

“It was a bad situation all the way around,” he said. “I’m not a bear hunter. I’ve never had any interest in bears. But we can’t have nuisance bears attacking people. It’s a big concern.”

When he learned that someone had wounded the bear earlier, he got particularly peeved.

“They put everyone in danger by wounding that bear,” he said. “They put my life at risk.”