A California teenager was left covered in blood after a bear allegedly attacked him inside his home early Monday morning.
Kevin Wood, 19, was rushed to the hospital after the terrifying encounter in Crestline, near San Bernardino, left him with deep scratches across his face and injuries to his body.
His mother, Darah Wood, said she heard a commotion around 5:45 a.m. before seeing her son emerge from his room badly hurt.
“I see him and his face is just covered with blood,” she recalled. “I could see his lip was entirely split.”
Darah quickly applied pressure to Kevin’s nose to stop the bleeding. At first, she did not know exactly what had happened because Kevin is autistic and is not always verbal.
“He’s moderately autistic, so he’s pretty much only verbal when he wants to be,” she said.
As she helped him, Darah noticed additional scratches on his stomach.
It remains unclear exactly how the attack unfolded, but Darah believes the bear reached through a screened window door in Kevin’s room and mauled him. The mesh window frame was later found bent.
After getting Kevin to the hospital, Darah discovered the bear had apparently stayed nearby. She said she scared the animal away by banging pots and pans.
“It’s very big and black, and the snout is sort of a light brown,” she said.
Nearby security footage reportedly captured a black bear roaming around the neighborhood, walking near homes and eating from a bird feeder.
One neighbor said bears are common in the area, but this year they seem more fearless.
“It just seems a little bit different this year,” the neighbor said. “I get quite a lot of bears anyway because of my location, I’m on the rim, but these bears seem to not be so scared.”
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife said bears become more active during warmer months. Officials often remind residents to remove open food containers and other attractants from their property to avoid drawing bears close to homes.
Cort Klopping, a CDFW official, told KTLA that investigators would be looking into the attack.
“Gathering DNA from the scene as well as the victim and then, once those DNA results come back, there will be, potentially, capture efforts involved to locate the bear in question,” he said.
The CDFW estimates that between 49,000 and 71,000 black bears live in California.
For Kevin’s family, the frightening attack turned an ordinary morning into a nightmare, leaving them shaken and grateful he survived.
