Fatal Bear Attack

We share a radio frequency with the department that was called out for this incident. I heard the whole thing on the radio. First, dispatch called it as a probable bear attack. Then when providing additional information, they said the patient had been dragged about 75 feet down a hill.

That went over the radio which implies the patient was probably deceased which turned out to be the case.

The victim was drinking coffee at a table and the bear attacked. It was a male bear so there were no cubs involved which makes this very rare relative to bear attacks generally which themselves very rate, even rarer with black bears. The sheriff's office said this was the first such attack in Arizona since the 1980's.

I don't know if we have more bears or are just seeing more of them, there's a difference.

A neighbor of the victim shot the bear but it was too late.

Of course this is awful for the patient, his family, the couple of neighbors who were close enough to hear it and maybe see it as well as other people living close by but that would be a brutal call to respond to as an emergency first responder like a firefighter. I made contact with the chief to offer support right after they got back from the call.

I've seen a bear twice here while hiking. Once on July 4th, 2014 and then two or three years later. I actually think it was the same bear but I will never know obviously. Either way, both times, the bear was huge. The first time, two of my dogs barked at it and chased it off and the second time, only one dog (Roscoe) was with us. He and the bear were facing each other but not that close and Roscoe barked at it. Both times, I was yelling my head off for the dogs to come back to me. Neither encounter ended badly.

We just have black bears here. In 2011 we went Yellowstone and had great luck seeing grizzly bears.

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Bear and wolf in a stare down over a buffalo carcass.

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