Darsh Patel, a 22-year-old Rutgers University student, was hiking with three friends in West Milford, New Jersey’s Apshawa Preserve, in 2014.

What was supposed to be a nice walk to decompress after their studies turned into a disaster when the group observed a 300-pound bear following them.

Patel decided to get out his phone and take some shots of the bear as it got closer to the group.

“They stopped and took photographs of the bear with their cellphones, and the bear began walking towards them,” according to a police report from the time.

When the bear was only 15 feet away, the party scattered into the woods, each sprinting in a different direction.

Patel’s pals informed authorities that they last saw him ascending a rock formation with the bear close behind, according to the record at the time.

Patel shouted for his buddies to keep running away from the bear, and that was the last they heard of him.

Patel’s three buddies were able to reassemble unharmed, but Patel was nowhere to be found.

They then called the cops, who were on the scene quickly.

After two hours of searching, authorities discovered Patel’s body with the bear nearby.

A necropsy later revealed that the bear had consumed human body parts and clothes.

Rutgers University, where Patel was a final-year computer technology student, acknowledged the incident in a statement.

“As we grieve over his tragic passing, please know that our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and loved ones, as well as all his friends and fellow Rutgers students,” said the university’s chancellor, Richard Edwards.

Police shot and killed the bear on the spot, and officials discovered Patel’s phone, which bore a bite mark from the creature’s teeth.

West Milford police published five images from Patel’s phone a few weeks after the horrific assault, showing the bear standing about 100 feet away from the hikers in the New Jersey woods.

With each successive photo, the bear appears to grow closer to the hikers until they escape and the camera pauses.

Officials claimed at the time that they didn’t believe the group provoked the bear but that they should have proceeded carefully and avoided eye contact with it instead of rushing.