A little boy in Carson had a scary encounter with Mother Nature this week when he was attacked by a coyote at a softball game, leaving him with bites and scratches that required stitches.
Enoch Palomar, 6, was at Del Amo park to watch his sister play in a softball tournament on Monday when the coyote attacked him.
“It just kept biting me and I was trying to kick it,” Enoch told news station KTLA-TV. “It was too fast and it just jumped. I was trying my hardest and then it didn’t work, and then I yelled.”
The attack unfolded in the background of a video being shot by a parent of the softball game. Video of the incident shows Enoch in the distance near a playground, screaming in panic and struggling to get up as the coyote scratched and bit him.
His mother, Melissa Palomar, ran to her son and scared off the coyote, she told thew news station.
“I was like, ‘Get up, get up!’” she said. “I was just hysterical.”
After the attack, the coyote trotted away, and Enoch was quite shaken.
Doctors patched up his leg with 20 stitches, KTLA reported. The coyote also bit his head, neck and scratched other parts of the boy’s body.
Palomar’s mother reported the attack to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the boy’s clothing was collected as part of an investigation.
While coyotes are a common fixture in many Southern California neighborhoods, the canines are typically skittish and avoid interactions with humans, according to Fish and Wildlife. But they are opportunists when it comes to food and will become conditioned to relying on trash left behind by humans, especially in areas bordering on their habitats or dens.
