Bears break into home, attack elderly man in Western Colorado

LAKE CITY, Colo. (KRDO) - Colorado Parks and Wildlife responded to a 74-year-old man who was attacked by a black bear with three cubs in his Lake City home.

In a press release, CPW said at around 8:30 p.m. on October 3 the bears broke in through a sliding glass door. Wildlife officials then say the man tried to get the bear back out of the door using a chair, but the bear charged the man knocking him back and swiping at him.

The 74-year-old man suffered significant wounds to the head, neck, both arms, lower abdomen, shoulder and calf. The man declined to be transported to a hospital. CPW says this is the first bear attack of 2024.

All four bears were captured after the attack and euthanized. "It’s a terrible set of circumstances that, unfortunately, our District Wildlife Managers are routinely faced with. Clearly, these bears were highly habituated and were willing to enter an occupied house with the residents sitting just feet away. When a bear reaches this level of human habituation, clearly a lot of interaction with people has already happened, and unless communities are working with us collaboratively and communicating issues, we have no opportunity to intervene," CPW Area Wildlife Manager Brandon Diamond said in a press release.

CPW asks the public to contact them before bear and human contact escalates to this level.

For more on how to bear-proof your home from CPW click here.