A hunter in Arkansas died after a deer he had shot attacked him, according to the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
“I’ve worked for the Game and Fish Commission for 20 years, and it’s one of the stranger things that’s happened,” Keith Stephens, the agency’s chief of communications, told NBC affiliate KY3 in Springfield, Missouri.
The victim, Thomas Alexander, 66, shot a buck with a muzzleloader while hunting near Yellville, Arkansas, the station reported.
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“I don’t know how long he left it there, but he went up to check it to make sure it was dead,” Stephens told the station. “And evidently it wasn’t.”
“It got back up, and he had several puncture wounds on his body,” Stephens said.
Alexander was by himself but able to call his family, who contacted emergency responders.
Alexander died at a hospital. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission said it is unclear whether he died from the puncture wounds, KY3 reported.
“It’s my understanding there’s not going to be an autopsy, so we may never know what actually happened,” Stephens said.
The chief of communications said that a person was stuck by a buck’s antlers in Ashley County about four years ago. In that incident, the individual survived.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission advises hunters to make sure a downed deer not moved for about 30 minutes before approaching it.
