BONNERS FERRY, Idaho — A 39-year-old hunter killed by a wounded grizzly bear yelled out to draw the 400-pound male bear toward him in an effort to keep it from attacking his young hunting partner, the man’s family said.
“They both shot it, and it kept coming,” said Steve Stevenson’s mom, Janet Price, on Saturday. “Steve yelled at it to try and distract it, and it swung around and took him down. It’s what my son would have done automatically, for anybody.”
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office in Montana said Stevenson, of Winnemucca, Nev., died Friday after 20-year-old Ty Bell wounded what he thought was a black bear and the two men tracked it into thick cover along the Idaho-Montana border, where it attacked about 10 a.m. Friday.
Stevenson’s family said he was an active outdoorsman who had made previous hunting trips to the area. He was married and had two daughters, ages 14 and 10.
The attack is under investigation. It’s illegal to kill a grizzly bear, which is listed as threatened in the Lower 48 states, but there was no immediate word whether Bell would face any charges.
The death is at least the third fatality caused by a grizzly since July.
The Associated Press
