Bear kills 16-year-old athlete in Alaska

A 16-year-old runner who was chased by a bear while he competed in a race over mountainous terrain was killed Sunday just south of Anchorage, Alaska. Patrick Cooper was competing in the juniors division of the Robert Spurr Memorial Hill Climb. Sightings and encounters with bears are not unusual in Alaska. “People come down off the trail and say they’ve run into a bear. Sometimes that means nothing, other times, it’s really serious. Like this,” race director Brad Precosky said. “This young man didn’t do anything wrong,” added Tom Crockett, a Chugach State Park ranger. “He was just in the wrong place.”