Justin Lyons was the only person who witnessed the tragic death of TV personality Steve Irwin and for the first time revealed his friend's final moments. During an interview with Australia TV show "Studio Ten Sunday," Lyons described how a "massive" stingray used his tail to pierce Irwin's chest.
Lyons, who worked with Irwin for 15 years, explained that they were filming for a documentary called "Oceans Deadly" and were looking for tiger sharks but bad weather prohibited them from finding any. Instead, Irwin decided to "look for something to do" when they came across a "massive stingray."
They needed the footage for another documentary, so Lyons told Irwin to swim up behind the animal and he would capture the stingray as it swam away. Lyons explained that the animals are "normally very calm" and simply swim away when they don't want to be bothered.
"All of sudden, it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail," Lyons said. "Hundreds of strikes in a few seconds."
He said the attacked happened so fast he didn't even see it happen.
"I panned with the camera as the stingray swam away - I didn't even know it had caused any damage," Lyons said. "It wasn't until I panned the camera back and Steve was standing in a huge pool of blood that I realized something was wrong."
Lyons said he believed the animal probably thought Irwin was a predator and jabbed him in the chest with its barb.
"I didn't realize how serious it was," he continued. "I didn't know it punctured his heart. I thought maybe it just punctured his lung and we had a good chance of saving him."
Lyons pulled the "Crocodile Hunter" in a boat and tried to do CPR but it was unsuccessful.
"He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said 'I'm dying.' And that was the last thing he said," the cameraman said.
Despite several attempts to save Irwin's life, the animal lover was pronounced dead seconds after medics arrived. When asked about the footage that captured the horrific events, Lyons said he wasn't sure it still existed but would never release it.
"Never," he said when asked about it. "Out of respect for his family, I would say never. Hopefully it won't ever see the light of day."
