A baby mountain lion was shot and killed this morning outside the Emeritus College building on Second Street in downtown Santa Monica.

The cub was spotted in a courtyard on Second Street by a janitor early this morning. He called the Santa Monica police. They responded immediately, blocked Second Street off and called the State Fish and Game department.

In an effort to subdue the cub, Fish and Game officials shot tranquilizers
at him, but when they failed to hit him and knock him out, they shot and killed him.

While coyote, possum and raccoons, all categorized as “protected wildlife,” are occasionally seen in metropolitan Santa Monica, this was the first
mountain lion in a very long time and arguably the first cub ever to find his way from the Santa Monica mountains, his presumed habitat, to downtown Santa Monica.