Pictures released of mother killed with baby by polar bear outside Alaska school
Pictures have been released of a woman and her son who were attacked and killed by a polar bear in a remote western Alaska village.
On Wednesday Alaska State Troopers identified the victims as 24-year-old Summer Myomick and her 1-year-old son Clyde Ongtowasruk.
Authorities said that the incident took place in Wales where the bear “entered the community and chased multiple residents” before fatally attacking “an adult female and juvenile male”.
The troopers noted that the polar bear was shot and killed by a local resident as it attacked the pair.
A GoFundMe account including pictures of both the mother and her baby has been set up by the community to help the family financially.
The fundraiser has described the attack on the mother and son as the first fatal polar bear attack in Alaska in over 30 years.
In 1990, a polar bear killed a man in the North Slope village of Point Lay. Later it was established that the bear was starving.
“Their immediate family is currently and had been displaced after recent electrical issues in their home that have yet to be resolved,” the fundraiser reads.
“In the face of unfathomable tragedy and heartbreak, we kindly ask for support of the family and community of Wales to help ease any associated financial burdens in this trying time (including travel expenses for Summer and Clyde ‘Bups’ Ongtowasruk Jr’s family, which is mostly by small passenger airplane only in villages), and to aid in getting ‘Bups’ and Avatia back into their home,” the page reads.
In an update on Thursday authorities said that an Alaska State Trooper and a representative from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game traveled to Wales to investigate the polar bear attack.
The remains of Myomick and Ongtowasruk were transported to the State Medical Examiner’s Office for autopsy.
Authorities found that Myomick and Ongtowasruk were walking between the school and the clinic when the bear attacked them.
