DNA test confirms killed coyote attacked 2-year-old girl near Huntington Beach Pier
Officials have confirmed that one of two coyotes which were shot and killed by police was responsible for a violent and unprovoked attack that wounded a 2-year-old girl near the Huntington Beach Pier last week.
The attack occurred just north of Huntington Beach Pier, on the beach itself, at about 9:45 p.m. Thursday.
The girl, who was with her family at the time, was taken to a hospital with serious head and facial injuries, but survived.
Cameras captured footage of the coyote running up and down the beach following the attack. Responding Huntington Beach police officers then chased down and shot two coyotes. One died on scene. The second was wounded and briefly escaped. However, it was found later Friday underneath a mobile home, about a mile from the attack scene.
It was euthanized.
On Sunday, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife confirmed that DNA taken from one of the two killed coyotes matched DNA that was taken from the wounds of the injured girl.
"Wildlife forensic scientists from CDFW have matched a coyote DNA profile taken from a 2-year-old attack victim's wounds to one of the two coyotes involved in the attack at Huntington Beach," the agency said in a news release.
Scientists will now conduct tests to determine whether the two coyotes had rabies.
"There's nothing we could say that would put them at fault," CDFW Capt. Patrick Foy said of the girl's family. "They did not antagonize the coyote. The coyote came out of nowhere and snuck up on this little girl."
