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LACLEDE COUNTY, Mo. — The Missouri Department of Conservation is asking for the public’s help in identifying the person or persons responsible for killing a bald eagle in Laclede County, Mo.

The eagle was found over the weekend with a single shot to the head with a small-caliber weapon.

Missouri Department of Conservation agent Jared Milligan told The Lebanon Daily Record the eagle was mature and shot late Saturday night or early Sunday morning.

“Usually when you find something like that, it was electrocuted from sitting on the electric lines,” he said. “We looked and it looks like there is a bullet hole.”

It is a felony in America to shoot a bald eagle or disturb its nest. Anyone convicted of killing an eagle are subject to a $5,000 fine, imprisonment up to one year or both.