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“In all my years as sheriff, I don’t know that I’ve seen another person gored by a bull.”
— Sheriff Maurice Cook
An Elgin-area resident died after being gored and dragged through a barbed-wire fence by a bull he raised from a calf, according to the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office.
Luis Acuna, 39, was found face down and bloodied near his home on Balch Road Sept. 12, deputies said.
The agitated animal remained near the body, deputies said.
Acuna was discovered just before midnight by a neighbor and a passerby, who called 911 after finding no pulse.
“It was wild. I started off thinking like drugs or something … this guy’s been killed and just dumped,” said Jay Armstrong, whose house neighbors Acuna’s outside the city limits. “I was trying to make sense out of it before I saw the bull covered in blood.”
Sheriff Maurice Cook said an investigation indicates Acuna entered his pasture and encountered the bull. The animal is believed to have then struck its owner, who tried to flee to the fence with the bull in pursuit.
“He was very familiar with the bull. He raised it since it was a calf but for whatever reason it chased him down,” Cook said. “In all my years as sheriff, I don’t know that I’ve seen another person gored by a bull.”
According to officials, Acuna was impaled by the bull’s horns and then dragged through the barbed wire after being killed.
Investigators said it remains unknown why the animal became upset.
Armstrong, who had moved to Balch Road less than a month earlier, said he first went to investigate after hearing unusual noises from the herd. He returned home but checked again after the sounds continued, where he found another driver who pointed him toward the body.
“I went around, thinking I was going to have to deal with an upset cow stuck in a fence,” he said. “There’s a 30-minute window there that, maybe … he was likely already dead, but that 30-minute window is one that’s stuck with me since then. To check the pulse on the body … the ordeal was just crazy.”
Armstrong waited until emergency services arrived, reaching the rural property in about 15 minutes.
The bull remained nearby and continued to behave aggressively, including toward deputies, Armstrong said.
“The bull was really riled up and upset,” he said. “If I were speculating, which I obviously am, is that the guy had walked into the field and he’s probably used to the bull and the cows being comfortable around him.”
At press time, the bull remained on the property and Cook said its fate is left to the discretion of Acuna’s survivors.
