One Elusive Coyote Leads Police On Chase Through Cabrini-Green Neighborhood, Another Captured At Fremont And Willow
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A coyote led police on a chase through the Cabrini-Green area Thursday night, amid an all-out hunt for a coyote that bit a young boy on the head in Lincoln Park a night earlier.
While that coyote was still on the loose as of the latest report Thursday, another was captured in the Lincoln Park neighborhood about a mile to the north.
Animal care and control darted the injured coyote with a tranquilizer last night near dayton and willow.
The coyote led police to a number of places between Division Street and Chicago Avenue east of Halsted Street – from Howe and Division streets to Cleveland Avenue and Hobbie Street, to the Near North (18th) District police station on Larrabee Street.
As CBS 2's Charlie De Mar reported, a major focal point was a fenced-in area adjacent to the shuttered group of Cabrini Rowhouses at Oak Street and Hudson Avenue.
Animal Care and Control and Chicago Police officers were all there just before 10 p.m. searching with their flashlights. They also had a device trying to wrangle the coyote.
But the coyote remained elusive as of after 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, a second coyote was spotted about a mile to the north at Willow and Fremont streets, in the southern part of the Lincoln Park neighborhood. Police confirmed that coyote was captured.
It was not clear if either of these coyotes was the one that attacked the 6-year-old boy on Wednesday evening in front of the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum, at Fullerton and Cannon drives in Lincoln Park.
On the south side of the museum, on a path up a hill, a coyote was in the bushes and somehow attacked the child.
The boy was with his nanny and running up the hill when the coyote attacked, according to Ald. Michele Smith (43rd). The boy may have accidentally gotten too close, Smith said.
Two DePaul University student athletes didn't think twice when they heard the awful scream. Dominic Bruce and Ryan Taylor run track and cross-country, and they were running that evening across the street to the nature museum.
"We almost finished up when we heard a screaming," Bruce said.
"The pure fact of wanting to help," Taylor said.
The pair was able to provide ultimate comfort for a little boy in serious need.
"We took a look across the street and eventually, we saw the woman pulling the child back and saw a coyote kind of jumping up," Bruce said.
Of the boy, Taylor said, "He was really bleeding a lot, all over his head and his jacket."
Taylor and Bruce ran across the street to the museum and helped scare off the coyote, who bit that little boy in the head several times.
They even flagged down a Chicago Transit Authority bus for tissues to stop the bleeding.
"We did anything that we could to try and help this kid out. I mean, he was hurting, and it was a dangerous situation, and we needed to step in because no one else was," Taylor said.
Bruce said it seemed like the coyote had a little bit of a limp.
A limping coyote has been spotted for over a week now, all over the Near North Side.
Overnight, a man walked into Northwestern Memorial Hospital and said he was bit in the butt by a coyote. Details in that incident were still being investigated Thursday night.
On Thursday during the day, Animal Care and Control continued their search in Oz Park, near Lincoln and Webster avenues and Larrabee Street.
Lincoln Park High School was put on soft lockdown during that search.
"I'd like to say that when anyone would hear a child scream that they'd go running after him, trying to help him, because you have to protect the innocent," Bruce said.
Animal Care and Control says the attack on the boy was the first bite by a coyote in Chicago in more than 10 years. And despite a number of people apparently spotting that limping coyote and sending us videos of it walking the streets of the Near North Side, the search has continued.
In the event of an encounter with a coyote, officials recommends "hazing" it, which can be making a loud noise or waving around to deter the animal. Officials also warned residents to avoid open garbage cans and monitor small dogs.
Officials said there is no evidence that there is a larger coyote population in the city, but there is an increase in sightings.
