Arizona teenager escapes bear attack with severe scratches

An Arizona mother was relieved Monday that her teenage son escaped a black bear that broke into her family’s cabin, suffering only a few nasty scratches on his face and arm.

“This really could have been a lot worse,” Carol Edington Hawkins told NBC News. “We still can’t believe this happened, but we also feel very blessed.”

Hawkins said her 15-year-old son, Brigham, was “just chilling” in one of the two cabins on her parents’ property in Alpine on Thursday night when the bear “came in through the front door and ran over his head.”

“The front door was open to let in the cool night air,” Hawkins said. “Brigham was watching YouTube and didn’t realize what was happening.”

But as soon as the bear struck, Brigham “started screaming,” she said. “I hit him on the nose and cheek and then hit his forehead and head.”

His 18-year-old brother Parker heard the screams and ran over from the other cabin, the mother said.

“Parker first thought it was some kind of large dog,” Hawkins said. “Then the bear saw Parker and began chasing him. That gave Brigham time to slam the door of his cabin.”

Parker, Hawkins said, made it back to the other cabin with the bear on his tail.

“He just paced around for a while while we watched him through the window,” Hawkins said of the bear. “Then he sat down on a couch on the porch and just looked around. It was crazy.”

Hawkins said while she called 911 and a neighbor for help, her husband Shane waited until the bear looked away and then ran to the cabin where Brigham was hiding.

“He slammed the door in the bear’s face,” she said.

When Arizona Game and Fish Department officials arrived, the bear was no longer besieging the cabins.

“After AZGFD wildlife officers arrived on scene, they were able to quickly locate and kill the bear,” the agency said in a statement.

The bear was a male and estimated to be about three years old. Its carcass is being examined for disease.

Hawkins said her son is “doing better” and has already received a rabies shot as a precaution. She said she does not know why the bear attacked.

“Maybe he was just hungry,” she said. “But that’s not how a bear behaves.”

If Parker hadn’t intervened, Brigham could have died, Hawkins said.

“He has a neurological disorder and would not have escaped the bear,” she said. “Several miracles had to happen simultaneously to save him.”

Of the 16 bear attacks on people in Arizona since 1990, two have been fatal, according to the Game and Fish Department. The most recent fatality occurred last year in Prescott, where a 66-year-old man drinking a cup of coffee in a wooded area where he was building a cabin was attacked by a black bear.

Earlier this month, on May 19, a hiker exploring the backcountry of Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming was attacked by a grizzly bear. The 35-year-old Massachusetts man also survived.

It is not summer yet and two bear attacks have already been reported.

In both cases, the humans emerged from the human-animal confrontations bleeding but still alive. The same could not be said for one of the bears.

Just recently, a 15-year-old Arizona teenager was sitting in his family’s cabin in the town of Alpine on Thursday when a black bear burst through an open door and punched him in the face, the Arizona Game and Fish Department reported.

“It then left the cabin and approached other family members before entering the cabin a second time and striking the victim’s arm,” the agency said in a statement.

The boy’s family managed to scare the bear away and a short time later, wildlife conservationists from the AZGFD arrived and “were able to quickly locate and kill the bear.”

“The bear was a male black bear estimated to be approximately three years old,” the agency said. “The carcass will be examined by the agency’s wildlife health specialists and tested for disease.”

Meanwhile, the boy’s family was grateful for what they had.