Five Year Old Boy Kills Bear|Channel 7 News

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Five Year Old Boy Kills Bear

posted 3:14 pm Mon December 10, 2007 - Dewitt

tags: dewitt • bear • boy kills bear

An Arkansas County boy killed a black bear Sunday weighing more than 400 pounds.

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(Tre Merritt, Five-year-old Hunter) "I was up in the stand and I seen the bear. It came from the thicket and it was beside the road and I shot it."

Tre Merritt's grandfather was in the stand with him at the time. He says Tre did it all by himself.

(Mike Merritt, Tre’s Grandfather) "He came in about 40 to 50 yards, and when he got in the open. I whistled at him and he stopped and I said, ‘Shoot Tre.’"

And that’s just what Tre did--he fired his youth rifle.

(Mike Merritt) "I said, ‘Tre, you missed the bear.’ He said, ‘Paw-paw I squeezed the trigger and I didn’t close my eyes. I killed him."’

The bear turned out to be 445 pounds--twelve-times the size of Tre. Mike Merritt said tears rolled down his cheeks when he found out his grandson killed the enormous bear.

(Mike Merritt) "His 10th great-grandfather was Davy Crockett. And Davy supposedly killed him a bear when he was three. And Tre is five and really killed a bear. I really doubt if Davy killed one when he was three."

Tre’s dad says he started teaching his son to shoot when he was just 2 ½ years old. Last year, Tre killed three deer.

The family plans to get a life-sized mount of the bear, but they’re not sure right now where they’ll put it.

Latest Comment on Five Year Old Boy Kills Bear

dave4567

12:26 pm on 02/14/08

This is the most responsible thing I have ever seen. Teaching a boy to kill for sport at this age is criminal. He has not developed the sensibilities to take on such a responsibility. Shame on his parents and his grandfather. They have no idea what the psychological consequences of these actions will be in the future. Did the local officials issue a license to this child to hunt bear? Or is this not done in Arkansas County? Idiots.

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