A black bear injured a teenage boy hiking in a mountainous recreation area outside Seattle on Tuesday, officials said, prompting a closure of the trail where it happened.

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The boy was scratched when the bear charged and “swiped” at him in the early afternoon about 2.7 miles up Mount Si Trail, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

He was one of three people hiking together along the trail in the the Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area, the department said in a statement.

“His injuries were very minor, but he was of course terrified,” King County Sheriff’s Office deputy Peter Linde told NBC affiliate KING of Seattle. “The bear tossed him around a little bit, but nothing serious. He’s on his way to the hospital right now to be checked out, get the wounds clean, and maybe get some antibiotics.”

King County Search and Rescue crews responded alongside the department’s own officers and transported the teen to a hospital for treatment, the fish and wildlife department said.

A separate group of hikers had another black bear encounter Tuesday when the animal followed them closely for “several miles,” the department said.

No other injuries were reported.

Fish and wildlife officials ultimately closed the Mount Si Trail so officers could search for the bear, it said.

The Washington State Department of Natural Resources said other nearby trails, including the Little Si and Mount Teneriffe trails and trailheads, have been closed “until further notice due to bear activity.”

“Please stay out of the area,” it said.

The state has recorded one death from a black bear encounter, in 1974. Twenty encounters have resulted in injury since 1970, the latest before Tuesday’s incident taking place in 2022, the Department of Fish and Wildlife said.

Mount Si Natural Resources Conservation Area, a scenic state landmark composed of four mountain peaks, is about 35 miles east-southeast of Seattle.

A man accused of shooting two National Guard troops near the White House, killing one of them, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to charges in a new indictment that make him eligible for a possible death sentence if he is convicted.

Rahmanullah Lakanwal, an Afghan national, was arraigned on 17 counts, including first-degree murder, in the new indictment handed up by a federal grand jury in Washington. Lakanwal originally pleaded not guilty in January to nine charges in the November 2025 shooting that killed Spc. Sarah Beckstrom and critically wounded Staff Sgt. Andrew Wolfe.

Before the Justice Department announces whether it will seek the death penalty against Lakanwal, his defense attorneys can meet with prosecutors and present any evidence that they believe weighs against a death sentence.

Beckstrom, 20, and Wolfe, 24, were deployed with the West Virginia National Guard for the federal law-enforcement surge that began in August in Washington, D.C., at the direction of President Donald Trump.

Lakanwal is accused of driving to the nation’s capital from Bellingham, Washington, while in possession of a stolen firearm and ambushing the two Guard members outside a subway station three blocks from the White House.

Another National Guard member heard gunshots and saw Beckstrom and Wolfe fall to the ground as Lakanwal fired a gun and screamed, “Allahu Akbar!” according to a police report.

Lakanwal, who was shot during the confrontation, was seated in a wheelchair during his arraignment on Tuesday. He didn’t speak during the hearing; one of his attorneys entered a not guilty plea on his behalf.

Lakanwal entered the U.S. in 2021 through a Biden administration program that evacuated and resettled tens of thousands of Afghans after the U.S. withdrawal from the country. Lakanwal worked with the American government, including the CIA, “as a member of a partner force” in Kandahar, Afghanistan, CIA Director John Ratcliffe has said.

Lakanwal is due back in court Sept. 16. A trial date for his case hasn’t been scheduled yet.