YELLVILLE, ARKANSAS – In what is described by officials as a bizarre incident, a hunter in Arkansas was killed by a deer he thought he’d shot dead.
66-year-old Thomas Alexander was on a deer hunting trip near Yellville on Tuesday night when he believed he shot a deer successfully, according to officials.
Mr Alexander lived in the area and was experienced at hunting. Alexander sat in an elevated deer stand during Arkansas’ muzzle-loader season, Keith Stephens, who is the chief of communications with the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission.
Alexander went to check on the deer he thought he killed, and soon made the discovery that the animal in fact was not dead.
Stephens described deer blood being found in the location of the attack.
“It appears he shot the deer and he had put his rifle down near the deer stand and walked down to check and make sure it was dead,” said Keith Stephens. “And that’s when whatever happened, happened.”
The deer was not fatally injured and was able to get back up and attack Mr Alexander who was severely injured with several puncture wounds in his body.
“Our assumption is the deer gored him with his antlers,” Keith Stephens mentioned.
Mr Alexander was alone at the time but was able to call on his family to help, who called emergency responders. Alexander died later at the hospital.
There are no plans for officials to perform an autopsy.
“It’s strange. Probably the only time it ever happened. We did have one in 2016 in southern Arkansas, but that hunter survived,” Keith Stephens stated.
According to Stephens, the deer is still at large and officials are searching for it.
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