Bear kills man on Navajo Nation in Crystal, New Mexico

Police urge residents to call nearest district if they spot a bear

A man was killed in a bear attack Thursday in Crystal, New Mexico, on the Navajo Nation, according to the Navajo Nation police department. Officers in the Window Rock district responded to a call about the attack around 1 p.m., the department said in a Facebook post.

Authorities shot the bear at the scene, and the animal fled into woods near where the attack occurred. Officers subsequently found the bear and “neutralized” it, the department said.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with the victim’s family at this time,” the Navajo police department said in its post.

The department did not identify the victim or specify what type of bear had killed him. Its criminal investigations unit and fish and wildlife unit also responded to the scene.

Thursday’s death appeared to be the first fatal bear attack in New Mexico since 2001, according to a comprehensive list of bear attacks. The 2001 fatality, in turn, was the first fatal New Mexico bear attack in roughly a century, the Associated Press reported at the time.

The 2001 victim was Adelia Trujillo, who was killed by a 250-pound male bear that broke into her house.

In 2020, a bear attacked a 37-year-old woman in Los Alamos, New Mexico, who survived. The woman and her husband were sitting on the deck at a ski lodge when the bear approached them, according to New Mexico wildlife authorities. The bear came within a foot of the couple before chasing the woman and attacking her in the parking lot. Her injuries included “several broken bones, a collapsed lung, bite marks and scratches,” the authorities said at the time. The woman survived, according to KRQE, and authorities reportedly killed that bear.

North America generally records only a handful of fatal bear attacks annually, according to the North American Bear Center. The center said a person’s chances of being murdered by another human are 60,000 times greater than dying at the hands of a black bear.

National Park Service statistics indicate the chances of being injured by a bear are exceedingly rare, at about one in 2.1 million.

The police department urged residents to “stay away from potentially dangerous wildlife” and to “call your nearest [police] District” if a bear is spotted.