'I'm so worried about my friend:' 911 dispatchers try to calm cougar attack victim



SEATTLE -- The two mountain bikers did what they were supposed to do when they noticed a mountain lion tailing them on a trail east of Seattle.

They got off their bikes. They faced the beast, shouted and tried to spook it. After it charged, one even smacked the cougar with their bike, and it ran off. It wasn't enough, authorities said.

As they stood trying to catch their breath, the cougar returned, biting one of them on the head and shaking them, Capt. Alan Myers of the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife Police said Sunday.

The second cyclist ran, and the animal dropped the first victim and pounced on them, killing that person and dragging them back to what appeared to be its den.

The 31-year-old Seattle resident who was bitten first, Isaac Sederbaum, survived. Rescuers flew the Sederbaum to a hospital, where the victim was in satisfactory condition Sunday, Harborview Medical Center spokeswoman Susan Gregg said.

'I'm so worried about my friend'


After the cougar attacked Brooks, a badly bloodied Sederbaum managed to get on a bike and ride off. It was a 2 mile ride before Sederbaum could get a cellphone signal to call 911.

Those 911 calls show how dispatchers worked with good Samaritans who found the victim.

"You're not going to die," a woman said to Sederbaum while speaking to a dispatcher.



ABOVE: Hear a 911 call obtained by Q13 News

"We're helping, buddy," a man said to another dispatcher. "He says he has a friend who is still up somewhere and may be really seriously hurt."

The dispatcher sent a text message with a link for the good Samaritan to click on to help emergency responders pinpoint their location in the forest.

"They're sending someone Isaac, they're having a hard time figuring out where we are."

In another 911 call obtained by Q13 News, a dispatcher worked to keep Sederbaum calm until the emotional moment when medics arrived.

"The ambulance is here," Sederbaum said before breaking down into tears.

After rescuers arrived, it took about half an hour to find the second victim, 32-year-old Seattle resident S.J. Brooks.

Brooks was dead with the cougar on top of them in what appeared to be a den-like area. An officer shot at it, and it ran off.

Several hours later, Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife agents used dogs to track it to a nearby tree. They shot and killed it.

An 'emaciated' cougar


"They did everything they were supposed to do," King County sheriff's Sgt. Ryan Abbott said. "But something was wrong with this cougar."

The attack Saturday near North Bend, in the Cascade Mountain foothills 30 miles east of Seattle, was the first fatal cougar attack in the state in 94 years.

Myers said Sunday the cougar was underweight — about 100 pounds, when a typical 3-year-old male in the area would be 140 to 180 pounds.

Authorities plan to match DNA taken from the animal with DNA from the victims to be certain they killed the right cougar. They sent the animal's carcass to a veterinary lab at Washington State University for a necropsy to determine what might have been wrong with it.

Deadly cougar attacks are rare




There are an estimated 2,000 cougars in Washington. Until the 1960s, the state paid hunters a bounty for killing them. Now, it allows 250 to be hunted in 50 designated zones.

While they are sometimes known to kill livestock or pets, and though one even found its way into a park in Seattle in 2009, encounters with people in Washington are rare.

Authorities said this is the second cougar attack death in Washington state in the past 100 years.

Attacks have become more common as people increasingly encroach on the animals' territory. In North America, there have been about 25 deadly attacks and 95 nonfatal attacks reported in the past century, but more attacks have been reported in the U.S. West and Canada over the past 20 years than in the previous 80, according to Fish and Wildlife.

What should you do if you run into a mountain lion?




Experts say that people encountering the big cats in the wild should stop and pick up small children immediately. Because running and rapid movements can trigger the animal's prey drive, don't run.

Instead, face the cougar, speak firmly and slowly back away — appearing as large as possible, such as by standing on a rock or stump or opening a sweatshirt or jacket.

Keep your eyes on the animal and become more assertive if it doesn't back off. And if it does attack, fight back.

"The idea is to convince the cougar that you are not prey, but a potential danger," Fish and Wildlife advises on its website.

Cougars are also known as mountain lions, pumas and panthers.