Conservation officers suspect it may have been deliberate and have submitted evidence to the county prosecutor. The swan was the male in a mating pair that hatches a family on the lake every spring.
Most agree the death was sad, especially since swans mate for life. But there is disagreement on whether it was an unavoidable accident.
“The jet ski driver was coming in to park and let his granddaughter off and the swan came right at him and he didn't have a chance to turn away,” explains Fred Clingen, who says he saw what happened. “It hit the front of the jet ski and went under.”
Frederick Clingen is the one who is charged with killing the swan.
“I’ve seen jet skis do circles around him, I’ve seen people throw rocks at him,” says Half Moon Lake resident Iesa Carlson. “We have been here about 19 years and he has been here that long, too.
"It’s sad he’s not here anymore, that somebody…that this happened to him.”
Last year someone shot the same swan killed by the jet ski with an arrow.
People around the lake helped nurse him back to health. But, they say there was no chance he could recover after going under the jet ski.
(WZZM13 - June 30, 2016)
