A father-son hiking expedition that went terribly wrong.
Tyler Johnson was out in the Alaskan wilderness with his father when things went south fast. The two men were hiking off of the beaten path at the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska when they crossed paths with a brown bear. Despite trying their best to avoid an altercation, the bruin charged them.
With no other options, and their lives flashing before their eyes, Johnson and his father had to act fast. Luckily, they were both armed, so they both pulled out their pistols and started firing – but not before the bear was able to knock Tyler to the ground.
Johnson explained how it all went down in a video he took immediately after the attack took place, in which he was likely coursing with enough adrenaline to not feel the pain:
“As you can see, we have a brown bear here. We were hiking through some pretty thick grass here. We startled her or him, I’m not sure, and it came charging at my dad. He made some noise, and then it went straight to me.”
The 32-year-old went on to say that as he was falling backwards, he pulled out his pistol and unloaded “like a motherf**ker” into the bear. His father, an Alaskan State Trooper, was also armed, and simultaneously fired shots into the bruin to stop it from mauling his son.
In the process, Tyler Johnson misfired and hit himself with one of the bullets he shot:
“I did shoot myself in the leg when I was falling backwards, but it went straight through my leg. I’m not sure if I shot myself again (in the other leg) when I was falling backwards, or if the bear got me. I know he did bite into me… I think I felt that.”
And I can’t emphasize enough how crazy it is that this guy is filming all of this mere minutes after he survived a brown bear attack. He’s describing all of this in a very calm nature, even with one leg in a makeshift tourniquet and the other with two open wounds where a bullet entered and exited.
The Johnson father and son sent out an S.O.S., and eventually the Rescue Coordinated Center of Anchorage showed up to evacuate them out of the area. Tyler was taken to a hospital in Anchorage, where he’s been recovering since the attack. Somehow, the bear-attack-survivor avoided needing surgery and got by on bandages and antibiotics given to him through an IV (for infection prevention).
You can view the video he took of himself (and the deceased bear laying beside him) right after the attack below:
NEW: Man gives films an incredibly calm video after he shot himself in the leg after getting attacked by a bear in Alaska.
Tyler Johnson is lucky to be alive after he was charged by a bear in south-central Alaska.
Johnson was bit in the leg, but thanks to his quick thinking,… pic.twitter.com/ELRm7vR7Jm
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) August 22, 2024
