From New Footage To Last Words—20 Secrets & Scandals Surrounding Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin's Death Revealed

Steve Irwin's death from a stingray barb to the chest on September 4, 2006, shocked fans around the world. Click through RadarOnline.com's gallery to find out the drama that continues to surround the Crocodile Hunter star and his family years after his fatal accident.

Cameraman Justin Lyons sat down for an interview and described the traumatic stingray stabbing, which he caught on camera from only a few feet away.

Lyon's segment was the first time he had spoken of the late animal expert, and he was understandably emotional during the interview.

He explained that they had almost wrapped filming for the day when Irwin decided to get a final shot swimming behind his subject. "All of a sudden it propped on its front and started stabbing wildly with its tail, hundreds of strikes in a few seconds," Lyons shared.

"It wasn't until I panned the camera back and saw that Steve was standing in a huge pool of blood that I realized something had gone wrong," said Lyons.

Lyons also revealed the truth about the rumor that Irwin pulled the stingray's barb out himself. "It went though his chest like hot butter," he noted, refuting the long-held rumor.

The cameraman also explained that Irwin initially wasn't aware of how serious his injuries were. "It punctured me lung," Lyons said Irwin stated right after the attack.

Irwin quickly went downhill as the injury took its devastating toll. "As we're motoring back, I'm screaming at one of the other crew in the boat to put their hand over the wound and we're saying to him things like, ‘Think of your kids, Steve. Hang on, hang on, hang on,'" Lyon recalled of how the minutes after the accident unfolded.

Added Lyon: "He just sort of calmly looked up at me and said, ‘I'm dying.' And that was the last thing he said."

Almost ten years after the accident, the Irwin family's emotional wounds are still raw. Irwin's outraged father came forward after Lyon revealed the TV personality's final moments during a televised interview.

"I personally felt very sad and to a degree angry about what Justin had to say," Bob Irwin shared during an interview with the ABC's Australian Story. "For a lot of people trying to get on with their lives without Steve – it wasn't something that helped by any means."

Bob Irwin also confessed his son's sudden death still weighs heavy on his heart. "I had things to get sorted out in my own head and that took a long time to get that sorted and not be like a hermit because it wasn't doing me any good," he said.

The clip was shot by a British tourist named Steffen Hill who met Irwin while vacationing in Australia, where the animal activist died at age 44 on Sep. 4, 2006.

"I read something somewhere recently which said the clips of the actual accident had been destroyed. I suddenly realized this meant that I probably had the last video of him before he died," said Hill.

"He looked quite happy on the day, nothing seemed to be bothering him. I spoke to him very briefly about what he was doing and told him I really admired and enjoyed his work," added Hill.

Irwin is seen in the video footage giving a big "OK" symbol with his hands, just hours before falling victim to the eight-foot wide stingray.

Now that her dad is gone, Bindi Irwin has suffered, including when she received criticism and created scandal in the wake of her recent decision last year to partner with SeaWorld on a project meant to encourage children to learn about animals.

The project even created tension within the Irwin family. Speaking for the first time about the announcement, Irwin's father Bob, a prominent Australian conservationist, said he could not support an organization that "keeps animals in captivity that does not consider and provide for that animal's physical, mental and emotional needs."

The elder Irwin blasted the organization for exploiting animals for the "performance of tricks with the intent of mere entertainment for financial gain."