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Bear mauls, tries to drag away 10-year-old boy in Connecticut backyard

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Published Oct. 17, 2022
Updated Oct. 17, 2022, 4:04 p.m. ET

A 250-pound “rogue” black bear mauled and tried to drag away a 10-year-old boy playing in his family’s backyard in Connecticut, despite desperate efforts by the child’s wheelchair-bound grandfather to scare the beast away.

“I heard him yell ‘bear’ and when I looked up, I saw his leg in the bear’s mouth and the bear trying to drag him across the lawn,” James Butler, the young victim’s grandfather, told the Republican-American of Waterbury.

The harrowing incident took place around 11 a.m. Sunday in the town of Morris, the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection said.

Officers from the state police and DEEP’s environmental conservation force responded to the scene and shot the bear, authorities said.

The 10-year-old was taken to Charlotte Hungerford Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries after being repeatedly bitten and clawed by the bear.

A 10-year-old boy was playing in his grandparents' backyard on West St. in Morris, Connecticut, when he was attacked and mauled by a black bear.
A 10-year-old boy was playing in his grandparents’ backyard on West Street in Morris, Connecticut, when he was attacked and mauled by a black bear. Google Maps

Butler said his grandson was playing near a trampoline in the backyard when the bear emerged from thick woods behind the house and lunged at the boy.

Butler, who uses a wheelchair, wheeled himself toward the bear and hurled a metal bar at its head, he told the newspaper.

The bear momentarily released the boy but then grabbed him a second time and used its claws to try to roll the 10-year-old onto his back, the grandfather recounted to the outlet.

A neighbor alerted by the boy’s screams raced over and temporarily scared the bear off by brandishing a pipe and yelling.

The 250-pound "rogue" black bear, not pictured, bit the child and clawed him while trying to drag the boy away before being shot and killed.
The 250-pound “rogue” black bear (not pictured) bit the child and clawed him while trying to drag the boy away before being shot and killed. Tribune News Service via Getty I

Once Butler and his grandson were safely inside the house, the bear returned, walking up a wheelchair ramp and peering at them through a screen door, Butler said.

“We thought he was coming through the screen,” Butler said. “No doubt he was a big threat.”

A state trooper who had arrived rattled the screen door to scare the bear off.

A DEEP conservation officer later tracked down the animal and euthanized it by shooting it.

Butler and his wife, Christina Anderson, said their grandson suffered a puncture wound to one thigh, bite marks on a foot and ankle and claw marks on his back.

With Post wires