Three people, including a child and a woman walking her dog, were injured in a series of suspected coyote attacks in Rockville, Maryland, before the animal was shot and killed late Thursday afternoon, authorities said.
The body of the coyote suspected in the attacks is being taken to a state lab for testing, Marylou Berg, a spokeswoman for the city of Rockville, told WTOP.
The series of attacks and repeated sightings of the coyote sparked a heavy police presence and led authorities to ask residents of three Rockville neighborhoods around Montgomery College to “shelter in place” as they searched for the animal.
The most recent attack came Thursday afternoon.
A preteen was reportedly bitten by the coyote on a trail in a wooded area on Aster Boulevard in the Woodley Gardens neighborhood. The child was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening.
In a separate incident also Thursday afternoon, a woman in the 500 block of Redland Boulevard, near the King Farm Stream Valley Park, was bitten on the arm, according to Rockville authorities.
The first attack came around 10 a.m., when a 59-year-old woman walking her small dog on Winder Court near Watt Branch Park in Rockville said the coyote attacked her and her dog.
The woman was taken to the hospital with injuries that were not believed to be life-threatening. Her dog has been quarantined.
A man reported seeing a coyote acting aggressively near Princeton Place around 5:30 a.m., but he knew to raise his arms and make loud noises, which scared the coyote off, authorities said.
Yet another sighting of the coyote came about 11 a.m., when a Rockville resident found their dog barking at the coyote from the backyard. The dog was taken to a veterinarian, but it’s unclear if the dog was injured.
