A 12-year-old boy shoots a black bear that mauled his father while hunting in western Wisconsin

SIREN, Wis. (AP) — A 12-year-old boy shot and killed an injured black bear as it mauled his father near their hunting cabin in the dense woods of western Wisconsin.

Ryan Beierman, 43, told the Minnesota Star Tribune that he was trapped by the 200-pound bear on Sept. 6 when his son, Owen, fired a shot from the boy's hunting rifle.

“Owen was a hero. He shot the bear and left it on top of me,” said Beierman, who suffered bites on his forehead, arm and leg and required stitches to reattach a flap of skin on his cheek that was torn in the attack.

He and Owen had previously spotted the bear from a tree stand near Siren, Wisconsin, about 90 miles northeast of Minneapolis. Owen fired a shot, wounding the bear, which then ran away. The couple waited about 20 minutes before beginning to search for the bear, attempting to find it with the help of a neighbor's tracking dog.

“We were kind of stuck in a thicket when we heard the dog howling and running past us,” Beierman told the newspaper. “That's when I stepped into a clearing. I said, 'There he is, Owen.'”

The bear attacked from a distance of about 6 feet (1.8 meters). Beierman said he fired eight shots at the animal with his pistol, but all of them missed.

“Before I knew it, I was flat on my back,” he said. “I started hitting him with the gun and it felt like I was hitting a brick wall. I tried to hit him with the blunt side of the gun between his ear and his mouth.”

Then the bear pounced on Beierman’s head.

“All I could see were his claws and teeth,” he said. “I raised my right arm to fend him off. I still remember the first bite. I heard a crunch. The bear was still attacking. He wouldn't leave me.”

“The bear was fighting for his life and I was fighting for mine,” Beierman added. “I was punching and kicking and flailing. That's when I saw a flash from the muzzle of Owen's gun.”

Beierman then managed to push the bear away. He estimates that the attack lasted about 45 seconds.

A neighbor drove Beierman and Owen to a hospital. They were picked up by an ambulance and taken the rest of the way. The wound on his cheek required 23 stitches. Beierman's right arm had seven stab wounds and one cut.

A conservation officer with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources said their hunting was legal.

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