STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Prosecutors filed charges Thursday against a man who said he accidentally shot and killed a bear near his downtown Steamboat Springs home.

District Attorney Elizabeth Oldham said Thursday that Kent Nightwalker faces misdemeanor counts of wasting of wildlife, reckless endangerment and disorderly conduct.

The bear was killed July 20 in an alley behind Nightwalker's home.

Nightwalker has said he was trying to shoot into the ground and scare the bear away but instead hit and killed the animal. He said police didn't respond to his 911 call earlier, but records show only 15 minutes elapsed between his first call and a call from a citizen reporting the bear had been killed.

Nightwalker told the Steamboat Pilot & Today newspaper he wasn't aware of the laws and that he didn't endanger anyone because no one else was around.

"I wouldn’t say they’re unfair," Nightwalker said about the charges. "I would say that you have to abide by the laws of a community, a city. You have to. I was ignorant. If I had it to do over again, I would have called them (the police) and called them and called them until they came to my house."

The bear, a male, weighed 200 to 300 pounds, and was shot in the head.

The disorderly conduct charge carries a penalty of a $250 to $1,000 fine and three to 12 months in jail. The reckless endangerment charge carries a penalty of a $50 to $750 fine and as many as six months in jail. And the waste of wildlife charge carries a penalty of a $100 fine and points assessed against a hunting license.