A Texas man was killed after he was attacked by a swarm of bees while mowing his lawn.

Steven Daniel was cutting his grass at his home in Eastland, Texas, on April 27 when the bees started to swarm.

Police were initially called to the scene of a vehicle crash, but when they got to the location, they found Daniel in the moving truck still being stung, the officer said.

The officer wrote in the report obtained by KWTX that Daniel “seemed out of it, had labored breathing, and was slurring.” A second officer who responded shortly after the first said that there were “multiple bee stingers embedded into Daniel’s skin as his face began to swell.”

Daniel was able to tell officers about the bee attack, adding that he could barely see.

Officers put him in one of the cruisers to try to prevent him from being stung more, KTXS reported.

Daniel became unresponsive and stopped breathing after being loaded into an ambulance. Despite attempts to save his life, Daniel was pronounced dead at an area hospital, KTVT reported.

His official cause of death was due to “circulatory collapse due to bee stings.” Daniel was not allergic but had other health issues, officials said.

A circulatory collapse is also called circulatory shock and happens when the circulatory system becomes compromised and does not allow blood to flow in an adequate amount to vital organs, USA Today reported.

A beekeeper found a large honeybee hive in an abandoned building near where Daniel had been cutting the grass. The beehive was safely relocated.

Officials estimated that there were between 20,000 and 30,000 bees in the hive. They stopped counting when they reached 200 stings on Daniel, KTAB reported.

This was the only time that Daniel had problems with bees on the property he and his wife had owned for the past seven years, his wife told KTAB.

Beekeeper Crissy Ward told the television station that April to June is called “swarm season” because the bees are active because of warm temperatures and blooming plants. They may attack because they may think a hive is being attacked.

“As everything is blooming, as everything is growing, the hives are growing. And when they run out of space, they will throw off a swarm. So they’ll split themselves, and half of the hive will leave, while half of the hive will stay because they’ve run out of room,” Ward told KTAB.

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