Page 14 - IAV Digital Magazine #623

iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine
Oklahoma Farmer Killed By Water Buffalo He Bought At Auction Just A Day Prior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=43pBwJsAc3w
By David K. Li, NBC News
Two
"aggressive" water buffaloes fatally attacked an Oklahoma man before confronting — and delaying — police and firefighters who responded to care for the
victim, authorities said Monday.
Brad McMichael, 45, died on
Friday from injuries he sustained from the large animals he had purchased at auction a day prior, his family and police
said.
The emergency call for help came at about 8:35 p.m. local time in the small town of Jones, about 20 miles outside of Oklahoma City, Jones Police Chief Bryan Farrington said in a statement.
First responders, however, were "ini- tially unable to reach the victim due to the aggressive behavior of the animals."
"Briefly, maybe 3 (minutes)," Jones Deputy Police Chief Sony Nohmer told
NBC News when describing the delay in care.
First responders killed one water buf- falo, allowing them to get to McMichael, who “had sustained multiple deep lacera- tions that proved to be fatal,” Farrington said.
McMichael’s fiancée, Jennifer Green, said that the delay was inconsequential. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
"I was there," Green said.
As first responders continued their work, a second water buf- falo "became increasingly agitated and posed a threat to emergency person- nel" and those on site that were also dispatched, accord- ing to the police statement.
Green said that she believes McMichael was preparing water for the animals when they attacked, and he would have never carelessly put him- self in a dangerous position.
"He wouldn't have been casual and, like I said, he was very experienced," Green said. "So we don't know how he got in that situation. But the stock tanks were not full of water yet. So we're not sure if he was dumping them out to fill them with fresh water before he left. But that's when it happened."
Running the farm had been a "dream" come true for McMichael.
"Most are aware by now we lost Bradley on Friday in a tragic accident," Green said in a statement
she posted on the McMichael Farms Facebook page. "His farm was his dream, and I had the privi- lege of helping him with it for a little while."
McMichael was sur- vived by his 21-year- old son Rylan, his ex-wife Amy Smith, a sister, a mother, and a grandmother.
The land where McMichael was rais- ing cattle, lamb, and goats has been in the family for at least three generations, Smith and Green said. Smith explained that the farm "was everything to him, it's what he lived for."
"Farming, our son and the community of Jones meant everything to him," she added. "He was a man that was brought up in that town and was never ever going to leave."
Green said she's been overwhelmed by the well wishes coming from Jones residents.
"I don't know if [McMichael] knew that people loved him as much as they do," she said.
iAV - Antelope Valley Digital Magazine