'I'll shoot!': Nagoya police officer draws gun, defends people from charging wild boar

NAGOYA -- A police officer pointed his gun and shouted, "I'll shoot!" at a wild boar in this central Japan city on Nov. 20, successfully driving it away from the area without any shots fired.

Aichi Prefectural Police's Moriyama Station received a report of two wild boars on the loose at around 2:40 p.m. Four officers were dispatched to a riverside area in Nagoya's Moriyama Ward, where they warned people and searched for the boars. At around 4:40 p.m., an approximately 1-meter-long boar charged toward around 10 people who were in the area. A 36-year-old sergeant made a split-second decision to intervene, believing the boar to be a mortal threat. The officer got in front of the boar, drew his gun and shouted that he would fire his weapon. The boar promptly fled into a grassy area.

The station's deputy chief, Junichi Sakomura, said of the officer's actions, "At present, I think this was an appropriate time for the officer to deploy his gun."

(Japanese original by Motoyori Arakawa, Nagoya News Center)