The boy's grandfather, James Butler, told a local newspaper his grandson was playing near a trampoline when a bear walked out of the woods behind his home.
A black bear mauled a 10-year-old playing in his grandparents' backyard and tried to drag the boy away before it was shot and killed, Connecticut authorities said.
The 250-pound bear attacked the child Sunday morning in Morris, according to the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
The boy was taken to a local hospital and treated for non-life-threatening injuries, officials said.
State police and wildlife officers responded and killed the animal.
The boy's grandfather, James Butler, told a local newspaper his grandson was playing near a trampoline when a bear walked out of the woods behind his home.
"I heard him yell 'bear' and when I looked up, I saw his leg in the bear's mouth and the bear trying to drag him across the lawn," the grandfather said.
Butler uses a wheelchair and rolled his chair toward the animal and threw a metal bar at the bear's head, he said. The animal released the child, but then grabbed him again rolled the boy onto his back.
A neighbor rushed over and began yelling and waving a pipe, the grandfather said. The bear ran off, and the man and his grandson went inside the house.
That's when the bear came back, lumbering up a wheelchair ramp and looking at them through a screen door. "We thought he was coming through the screen," Butler said.
The boy suffered a puncture wound to his thigh, bites on his foot and claw cuts to his back.
Black bears are increasingly drawn to an expanding human population in Connecticut as housing developments grow, state wildlife authorities said. The animals are attracted by food and garbage.
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