A Rutgers student hiking with four friends in New Jersey was likely killed by a bear Sunday afternoon.
The five were hiking in the Apshawa Preserve and ran in different directions when they realized a
black bear was nearby, NorthJersey.com reported. When four of them got back together, they realized Darsh Patel, a 22-year-old student at Rutgers University, was missing.
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Police found Patel’s body.
Tim Storbeck, the West Milford police chief, said at a news conference that when officers found the student’s body the bear was nearby and "would not leave the victim." They fired twice and killed the bear.
“This is the first fatal attack [in New Jersey] in recent history. There may have been some attack in the 1900s that’s rumor or legend but nothing recorded,”
Department of Environmental Protection spokesman Larry Ragonese said, NJ.com reported.
The bear was almost 300 pounds and was about 4 years old.
"While there are occasional aggressive action by bears, what happened this week is not a typical event," Ragonese said, according to NorthJersey.com.
Hiker Robert Siebert showed up at the preserve to hike alone Monday and said he hadn’t heard of the attack, NorthJersey.com said.
"I think I'm going to skip today," he said. "It's not going to scare me away forever, but I want more information."
The Rutgers community went online to mourn Patel’s passing, made doubly tragic by the death of another student this weekend, 19-year-old Caitlyn Kovacs. She died early Sunday morning in what authorities suspect
may have been an alcohol-related death, Newsday said. She was “in distress” at a fraternity party and friends took her to the hospital Sunday, where she died.
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