The suspected mountain lion attack comes just weeks after another brutal incident

A few weeks before a hiker was killed by a suspected mountain lion in Colorado, a man was nearly mauled by one on the same trail.

Gary Messina said he was run over by a mountain lion while running on this road in northern Colorado on a November morning.

Messina said he threw his phone at the animal while it was circling behind him, he was able to escape after a few minutes when he broke a stick from the wall and hit the mountain lion on the head with it.

“I had to fight it because it was actually trying to abuse me,” Messina told the Associated Press. “I was afraid for my life and I couldn’t escape. I tried to reverse and it was trying to throw me.”

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A woman found dead on the same road on New Year’s Day “had injuries consistent with a mountain lion attack,” a Colorado Parks and Wildlife spokesperson said.

“Around 12:15 this afternoon, hikers on the Crosier Mountain trailhead in Larimer County saw a mountain lion next to a human lying on the ground about 100 yards away,” Kara Van Hoose said at a news conference Thursday.

After the suspected attack, wildlife officials have killed two mountain lions and are searching for a third to determine if the animal has rabies or another disease.

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The attack was the first suspected killing of a mountain lion by poaching in more than 25 years, with the last occurring in 1999.

This photo provided by Gary Messina shows a mountain lion in the brush between two trees along the Crosier Mountain trailhead in the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests near Glen Haven, Colo., on Nov 11, 2025. (Gary Messina via AP)

Messina said he reported his incident days later and officials put up signs warning of mountain lions and they were taken down.

He said he believes that the animal that attacked him may have been the one that killed the New Year’s traveler.

Sightings of mountain lions in that area of ​​Rocky Mountains National Park are common, but these animals are rarely aggressive.

The New Year’s Day attack would be the fourth deadliest in North America in the past decade and the 30th since 1868, according to the Mountain Lion Foundation.

“As more people live, work, and rebuild in wildlife habitats, interactions may increase, not because mountain lions are becoming more aggressive, but because populations are increasing,” said the agency’s chief conservation officer, Byron Weckworth.

Authorities are blaming a female lone hiker in Colorado for a rare New Year’s Day mountain lion attack. (AP Digital Embed)

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To avoid the risk of being attacked, experts tell conservationists to avoid dawn and dusk when mountain lions are most active and travel in groups.

When meeting, experts say to keep eye contact with the animal, try to look as big as possible, slowly back away without turning your back on the animal and don’t run.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.