Officers from the state police and DEEP’s environmental conservation force responded and shot the bear, authorities said.
The boy’s grandfather described the harrowing attack to the Republican-American of Waterbury. James Butler said his grandson was playing near a trampoline when the bear emerged from thick woods behind the house.
“I heard him yell ‘bear’ and when I looked up, I saw his leg in the bear’s mouth and the bear trying to drag him across the lawn,” Butler said.
Butler, who uses a wheelchair, wheeled his chair toward the bear and threw a metal bar at its head, he told the newspaper.
The bear released the boy but then grabbed the child a second time and used its claws to try to roll the boy onto his back, the grandfather said.
A neighbor alerted by the boy’s screams raced over and scared the bear off by brandishing a pipe and yelling, Butler said.
Once Butler and his grandson were safely inside the house, the bear returned, walking up a wheelchair ramp and peering at them through screen door, Butler said.
“We thought he was coming through the screen,” Butler said. “No doubt he was a big threat.”
The bear was fatally shot by police a short time later.
Butler, and his wife, Christina Anderson, who was inside the house when the bear attacked, said the boy suffered a puncture wound to one thigh, bite marks on a foot and ankle and claw marks on his back.
State biologist Jenny Dixon said the risk of negative bear-human interactions is increasing as Connecticut’s expanding bear population becomes acclimated to humans and develops a taste for their food.