In his first interview since killing Hwange National Park’s iconic black-maned lion, Cecil, in July, Minnesota dentist Walter Palmer announced Sunday night he would be returning to his practice later this week.

“I have a lot of staff members, and I’m a little heartbroken at the disruption in their lives,” Palmer told reporters from the Minneapolis Star Tribune and the Associated Press. “And I’m a health professional. I need to get back to my staff and my patients, and they want me back. That’s why I’m back.”

During the 25-minute interview, which Palmer said would be his only media appearance, the dentist reportedly refused to answer many questions about the hunt, but admitted, “If I had known this lion had a name and was important to the country or a study obviously I wouldn’t have taken it.” From the Associated Press:

Palmer said he shot the big cat with the black mane using an arrow from his compound bow outside the park’s borders but it didn’t die immediately. He disputed conservationist accounts that the wounded lion wandered for 40 hours and was finished off with a gun, saying it was tracked down the next day and killed with an arrow.

Palmer also denied that he had been in hiding.

“I’ve been out of the public eye. That doesn’t mean I’m in hiding,” said Palmer. “I’ve been among people, family and friends. Location is really not that important.”

Asked if he would return to Zimbabwe for further hunts, the dentist reportedly said, “I don’t know about the future.”

“Zimbabwe has been a wonderful country for me to hunt in,” Palmer told the Associated Press, “and I have always followed the laws.”

[Image via AP Images]