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A man died in Virginia, US, when a bear fell from a tree after it was shot by a member of his hunting party.
Lester C Harvey, 58, met with the accident during a hunting trip in Lunenburg County at around 9.50pm local time on 9 December, the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources said.
He suffered injuries and died four days later in a hospital where he was receiving treatment.
The hunting party spotted a bear and chased it as it ran up into a tree, the department said.
As the party retreated from the base of the tree, one of the hunters shot the bear and it fell on Harvey, who stood about 10ft away, it said.
“A member of the hunting group rendered first aid until local fire and EMS arrived on scene,” wildlife resources spokesperson Shelby Crouch said Tuesday. “The department is not currently seeking any charges related to this incident.”
According to his obituary, Harvey lived in Phoenix and was a self-employed contractor. He is survived by his wife, three sons and two daughters.
“Lester was a friend to all and never met a stranger. He was an avid outdoorsman,” it said.
Josh Harvey, one of his sons, said in a Facebook post that his dad was “injured extremely badly” doing what he loved the most along with his good friends.
The post included photos from the hunting trip along with the dead bear and videos from his time in hospital.
In a similar incident in 2018, a man in Alaska was critically injured after his hunting partner shot a bear on a ridge. The animal tumbled down a slope onto the man, who was also struck by rocks dislodged by the bear.
In 2019, a hunter was injured in North Carolina after an injured bear fell out of a tree and began biting him. The man and the animal fell off a cliff during the struggle and the hunter was taken to hospital.
