SETTLERS BAY -- Mary Beall was the only person cited for feeding a 2-year-old moose in this woodsy neighborhood built up around a golf course southwest of Wasilla.
But family members say she wasn't the only person feeding it.
The calf was killed in Beall's yard on Easter Sunday. Two of her sons shot the moose at close range with pistols in what they described as an effort to protect a nearby group of people that included three toddlers.
His mother hand-fed the moose some carrots in January, shot a video and put the video on Facebook, 26-year-old James Beall said at the family's home Monday morning. Beall said he told his mother to stop feeding the moose, which is illegal. He told her to take down the video.
That was the only time his mother fed the moose, said Beall, a U.S. Army veteran who lives at the house with his wife and 1-year-old daughter.
But he said he saw a neighbor giving the animal carrots and heard stories of other people hand-feeding it too. Beall said he called authorities a week or two before Easter to warn them the animal was aggressive and getting fed.
"I told them I will drop this moose if it continues to be a problem," Beall said.
He and his 24-year-old brother, Josiah, shot the moose during a family Easter celebration at the house, he said. They weren't charged in connection with the shooting, which Alaska State Troopers determined fell within the state's defense of life or property game laws.
James Beall said he served with the 16th Infantry Regiment "Rangers" based at Fort Riley, Kansas; he took a round across the chest during his second tour of duty in Iraq.
"I was trained in instant response," he said. "As soon as I felt they were in danger, I opened fire."
The incident inflamed the subdivision, especially after one of the family's photos that showed the calf dead in the yard with one person smiling as he took a picture and another person grinning from inside the house was posted on a neighborhood Facebook group.
Mary Beall may have posted photos of the calf to warn people that its mother could become aggressive, but it was the smiles in the photo that upset neighbors, said Kayla Ramsey, a Settlers Bay resident who lives on the next street. She said some residents wondered if the Bealls were somehow taunting the moose.
The photos created "a weird vibe," Ramsey said. "I think that's what ticked everybody off is they were gloating about it. They shot the moose like nine times in a neighborhood. Those bullets could have gone anywhere."
James said Monday that he and Josiah were playing soccer and smoking in the driveway while 7 to 11 family members gathered on a patio about 10 feet away. The moose appeared suddenly from behind a truck, he said.
The brothers each grabbed their pistols -- a .357 SIM and Taurus .40-caliber -- from vehicles next to them in the driveway "in case anything happened," James Beall said.
Then, Beall said, the moose dropped its shoulder and charged the patio. There wasn't enough time for the people on the patio to get into the house, he said. The brothers fired numerous shots and the moose dropped about 6 feet away. He shot six times because he didn't want the moose to suffer or get up and start kicking, Beall said.
Their mother, 53-year-old Mary Beall, was cited on Saturday for unlawfully feeding game, troopers said. Her bail was set at $310 in Palmer District Court. She did not return an email request for comment in time for this story.
James said the family has received death threats and "property destruction threats" since they killed the moose.
Kelly Schindler, who lives on the same street as the Bealls, said the calf and his mother were so friendly that the cow let Schindler pet her.
Schindler, who said she never fed the animals, said it was clear somebody was, though she didn't know who. The calf showed up in her yard not long before Easter and seemed as docile as usual.
"He was like everyone's pet moose," she said.
Alaska Wildlife Troopers said tracks as well as witness statements "showed the moose had acted aggressively and was charging a person when it was shot," according to an online dispatch. "Subsequently, additional information was received by AWT that homeowners in the area had been feeding several moose in the weeks leading up to the shooting."
Troopers don't know if the moose fed in Mary Beall's January video is the same one that was shot, or if it was the only time that moose was fed, spokeswoman Megan Peters said.
"(H)owever based upon how readily the moose approached during the videotaped feeding, it appears the moose were very comfortable receiving food from humans," she wrote in an email.
Generally, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game gets about one or two calls a year about people feeding moose, said Tim Peltier, assistant Mat-Su area biologist.
But wildlife-feeding situations don't usually end the way this one did, Peltier said. Usually, biologists talk with the people feeding wildlife and tell them the dangers: it gets animals used to people and brings them too close if they get aggressive.
"I don't recall this happening too often," he said.