AMERICAN FORK, Utah — An 11-year-old boy was dragged screaming from his family’s tent and killed by a black bear during a Father’s Day outing in the Utah wilderness.

The boy, his mother, stepfather and 6-year-old brother were sleeping in a large tent Sunday night in American Fork Canyon, about 30 miles southeast of Salt Lake City, when the stepfather heard a scream.

The boy and his sleeping bag were gone. His body was found about 400 yards away, said Lt. Dennis Harris of the Utah County sheriff’s office. His identity was not released.

Authorities said the bear, a male possibly 300 pounds, probably was the same one that was snooping around a different tent in the same area before dawn Sunday.

Wildlife officers shot a black bear Monday and flew its remains out of the Wasatch Mountains for tests to confirm that it was responsible for the fatal mauling. The officers used 26 dogs to track the bear’s scent, shooting and wounding him. The creature wandered around wounded until officers shot and killed him several hours later, said Lt. Scott White of the state wildlife agency.

Authorities said the death was Utah’s first fatal attack on a human by a black bear. It follows reports of several bear sightings during spring and occurred just hours after other people in the same primitive campsite likely encountered the same animal.

“Truly a tragic event,” said Jim Karpowitz, director of the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources. “Events of this type are extremely rare in Utah.”

The attack occurred in American Fork Canyon, a popular camping destination with elevations as high as 11,000 feet.

“When it’s hot and dry like this, bears are short of food,” Karpowitz said.

In May, officials reported black bears in Provo Canyon and Park City, including one that ripped through a screen door at a cabin where residents had burned food and opened windows.

Officers killed that bear because it showed no fear when biologists tried to scare it away with firecrackers, the wildlife agency said.

Black bears, which are found in 27 states, are “generally less aggressive than other bears and don’t prey on humans,” said Stewart Breck, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture in Fort Collins, Colo.

The typical human-bear conflicts involve bears breaking into homes or cars.