Off-duty deputies talk about shark attack rescue in Pebble Beach

UPDATE: 11/27/2017 3:46 p.m. A shark attack victim is still in the hospital as he awaits another surgery.

Grigor Azatian and his father were spearfishing near Stillwater Cove in Pebble Beach when he was attacked by what he believes was a 15-foot Great White Shark. They landed the boat near the beach and tennis club where off-duty sheriff’s deputies happened to be.

“At that moment came in and attacked him from his back. When I surfaced, I heard this scream, like now it’s stuck in my mind, I realized something horrible happened,” said Armen Azatian, the victim’s father.

Azatian reflected on the moments before his son, Grigor was attacked by a shark on Friday.

The two from Southern California were in Pebble Beach to go spearfishing, something they do quite often.

Armen said Grigor saw the shark, and tried to warn his dad when the attack happened.

Grigor, in his mid 20’s, was bit several times in his upper right leg in what would turn out to be the fight for his life.

“I don’t know if it helped or not but he did try to fight the shark. One moment the shark did come out of the water, he saw the left eye of the shark and they had this eye contact, so-called,” said the Armen.

Armen got back on the boat and took off toward land, arriving at Stillwater Cove where two Monterey County Sheriff’s Deputies were wrapping up a day of fishing. They ran down to help bring the boat onto land.

“At that time we could see Grigor in distress, he had some pretty bad trauma to his upper right leg, missing a lot of tissue and losing a lot of blood, we could tell he was in shock. He was pale and surprisingly calm,” said Deputy Michael Tsuchiura.

There were a couple of challenges first responders faced while rescuing the victim. The first was large waves were crashing into the boat, trying to drag it back out into the water. The second challenge was the boat was small, so when first responders were trying to give medical aid, they were working in a really small space.

Deputy Tsuchiura said, “We train for a lot of different things and you never expect to see something like that. It’s few and far between, of all the things we train for, those kind of medical responses will actually get to help somebody in the field so I was grateful to be there.”

“I’d like to find their name and send them a special thank you because they helped me a lot. They were the first one to jump down. They helped me drag the boat towards the sand,” said the victim’s father.

Grigor took some of his first steps Monday, but faces a long recovery. In fact, he’s having another surgery Tuesday. If all goes well, he will go back home to Northridge on Wednesday. Armen said he’s grateful to the deputies who helped save his son and the deputies hope to reunite with Grigor in the next few days.

PREVIOUS STORY: November 24th, 9:30pm

One man is in the hospital tonight after being attacked by a shark in Pebble Beach today.

Reports came in just after 1:00pm Friday of the shark attack at Stillwater Cove near the Pebble Beach Lodge.

The victim was reportedly spear fishing in the area when he was attacked. He was able to drive his boat to shore after the attack. Monterey County sheriff’s office says two off-duty deputies were near by during the attack. An on duty deputy responded to the attack with a trauma kit, one of the deputies on scene helped apply a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

The victim did suffer a severe leg injury and was transported to Natividad Medical Center where he is reportedly in stable condition.

Monterey County Sheriff officials confirm the attack was indeed from a shark.

There was another person extracted from the water, but they were not injured.

One man that was fishing in the same area says he did not see the attack, but saw the aftermath, “We were out just fishing like normal, and you know we saw this red zodiac boat come in. Kind of acting a little not right, so we thought maybe they were having motor trouble or something like that. And then all of a sudden the safety people came out on a Jet Ski and said you guys got to get out of the water, there’s a great way. So it was pretty crazy so we got out and didn’t want to mess around with that. And the wetsuit was inside the zodiac and it was pretty shredded and a lot of blood and stuff like that so it didn’t look good,” says Chris Prestegard.

Officials tell us the injuries appear to be consistent with that of what would be made by a great white.

Beaches remain closed from Carmel to Stillwater Cove where the attack happened. There are now warning signs around the area.

Fish and Game also responded to the scene to continue the investigation.

————————————————————————————————————————–

UPDATE: Monterey County Sheriff officials confirm the attack was indeed from a shark

The man with a severed leg is in stable condition at an area hospital, and the other person who was extricated was not injured.

Officials tell us the injuries appear to be consistent with that of what would be made by a great white.

Beaches remain closed from Carmel to Stillwater Cove.

————————————————————————————————————————–

CalFire Med officials have confirmed with KION, one person has been transported to the hospital after an apparent “aquatic animal” attack near Pebble Beach.

An adult male was pulled out of the water with a “severed leg” and transported to an area hospital.

Initial 911 reports say it was a shark, however officials say they are still working to determine what kind of animal it was.

A second person is being extricated, with possible injuries.

All beach goers in the area have been taken out of the water, as the investigation continues.

Fish & Game have also been requested on scene.

KION will update the story with the very latest and will have more at 5 and 6.