Police shoot, kill coyote that bit 4-year-old Mesa girl
MESA, Ariz. - A 4-year-old girl is recovering after she was attacked by a coyote on Friday morning outside her home in a Mesa neighborhood near Power and Guadalupe roads.
The little girl named Blair was apparently playing in her front yard when she was bitten on the hip around 9 a.m. Her father rushed her to a nearby urgent care center, and we're told she will be okay, but she wasn't the only target.
Greg Bair lives around the corner and was tending his garden when a coyote got a little too close for comfort. He yelled, sprayed it with a hose, but the coyote kept creeping closer.
Mesa Police officers tracked the coyote for over an hour as it ran through nearby neighborhoods. Just after 10:30 a.m., the coyote was found along a canal near 72nd Street and Guadalupe Road where it was shot and killed by an officer.
Bair took a picture of the dead coyote.
"It was pretty intimidating because I had no defense. I had nothing. I didn't have a stick. I had nothing. And so I thought somehow in my mind that I'd go get the hose, so I got the hose."
The Arizona Game and Fish Department is assisting in the investigation and will test the coyote for rabies, but until then, Blair will need to get rabies shots. Her father says getting the shots was the only time she cried.
Why coyote sightings are becoming more frequent in this neighborhood
Friday's encounters happened in a fairly new housing development, which used to be open farmland. And more construction is happening every day -- along with the feeling that someone is feeding wild animals.
So coyote sightings aren't rare around here, but attacks are -- until now.
".. today an attack.. kind of makes you be more aware and alert of what’s going on," said Jeff Hubbs, a resident.
Reports of coyote attacks in Ahwatukee have some residents worried
In the past few weeks, at least two coyote attacks have been reported along a popular trail in the Ahwatukee area of Phoenix.
Where the coyote attack happened: