A mother and her infant son were killed in a polar bear attack Tuesday, after the animal chased several residents through Wales, a remote Alaskan village. Authorities identified the two victims as 24-year-old Summer Myomick of St. Michael, and her 1-year-old son, Clyde Ongtowasruk.
The incident occurred around 2:30 p.m. on January 17, when the polar bear entered the community and attacked the mother and son next to the front entrance of the Kingikmiut School building in Wales, Alaska, according to a news release from the Alaska Department of Public Safety.
Bering Strait School District chief administrator Susan Nedza said school officials rushed people inside the building after spotting the bear near the school. “The bear tried to enter with them,” Nedza told the Anchorage Daily News, but principal Dawn Hendrickson “slammed the door” to prevent the animal from entering the premises.
The bear was close to invading the building and Nedza described the incident as 'terrifying.'
“It’s terrifying,” she said from her office in Unalakleet. “Not something you’re ever prepared for.”
School officials pulled the shades and locked down the building. They also sent a message to community members, calling for someone “to take care of the bear,” per the newspaper. Authorities said a resident shot and killed the animal as it fatally attacked the mother and child.
“Initial reports indicate that a polar bear had entered the community and had chased multiple residents,” police officials said in a statement on Tuesday. “The bear fatally attacked an adult female and juvenile male.”
Authorities said inclement weather delayed an investigation into Tuesday's attack.
Poor weather conditions and no runway lights delayed troopers and Alaska Department of Fish and Game personnel from flying into the remote village to investigate the attack, the agency said in the news release. But in an update Wednesday night, police and wildlife officials arrived in Wales and initiated a probe into the mother and son’s death. The investigation revealed that Myomick and Ongtowasruk were walking between the school and the clinic when the bear attacked the pair.
Virginia Washington, the St. Michael city administrator, appeared to have been devasted by the news of Myomick and her son’s death. “It’s very, very sad for St. Michael right now, and Wales,” Washington told the Associated Press, adding, ”She was a very sweet lady, she was very responsible.”
The remains of Myomick and Ongtowasruk were transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for an autopsy, state police said.
Wales is over 100 miles northwest of Nome and on the westernmost tip of the North American mainland.
The estimated population is about 150 people living primarily in the Inupiaq community, the AP reported. Geoff York, the senior director of conservation at Polar Bear International, said residents in Wales typically organize patrols when polar bears are expected in town around December through May, reported the Anchorage Daily News.
Joseph Jessup McDermott, the executive director of the Alaska Nannut Co-Management Council, attributes climate change as one of the reasons polar bears migrate towards land, increasing the chances of human encounters, according to the newspaper.
“Over the past few decades, it’s been very, very rare for those types of attacks to occur,” McDermott said. “It’s incredibly tragic it happened.”
The last fatal polar bear attack happened in Alaska in 1990.
According to UPI, an 8-foot-tall, 572-pound male polar bear killed a man in an Alaska village in December 1990. After the animal was shot and killed, an investigation determined the bear’s stomach contained human remains from the attack.
Biologists said the polar bear showed signs of starvation. “There may be more bears in poor condition and more susceptible to hunting humans,” said Gerald Garner, a US Fish and Wildlife Service polar bear biologist.
“While rare instances like a bear showing up in Noatak have occurred in recent years,” McDermott said. “The presence of bears around communities like Wales is a normal and regular occurrence.”
