MORRIS, CT – A Connecticut man rushed to the aid of a wheelchair-bound grandfather who was fighting a 250-pound black bear that was attacking his 10-year-old grandson.
Jonathan Digimas said he heard the commotion from his house and responded to see the bear attacking the boy. He said he grabbed a nearby pipe and threw it at the bear, striking it in the head.
“I picked up the pipe, and I threw it at the bear as hard as I could. I struck it in the head,” he said in an interview with NBC Connecticut. “My neighbor and my neighbor’s wife brought the little boy, their grandson, inside. He was bleeding from his foot, and he had claw marks all over his back.”
The boy’s grandfather also struck the bear with a crowbar.
The 250-pound black bear was located and euthanized by the Connecticut Environmental Conservation Police. The boy suffered from non-life-threatening injuries. The boy was visiting his grandparents at the time of the attack.
The boy was playing near a trampoline in the backyard when the bear came out of the woods into the yard.
James Butler, the boy’s grandfather, said he heard the boy yell “Bear” and looked out the window to see the child’s foot in the bear’s mouth.