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A coyote remains at large in Scottsdale after two toddlers were attacked in less than a week. Officials believe the same coyote is responsible for both attacks in a 2-mile area near Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard, 12 News reports.
The most recent attack occurred around March 22 around 5:30 p.m. Kelly Pirozzi arrived at her home with her three children and they were met by a coyote in the driveway. "That coyote must have watched us get out of the car and kind of waited for the right time to go after our son," Pirozzi said about the coyote that attacked her 21-month-old son Brody. In the video, you can see the mother rushing to her son's side and the coyote backing away.
"The coyote came behind us, and ran up towards him, and bit his right arm. As soon as he bit his right arm, he started screaming and knocked him over," she told AZFamily. Dad Jeff McAlister told LiveNOW from FOX the coyote "grabbed his arm and took him to the ground, and screams, and we came and, you know, picked him up. And the coyote ran away and actually came back and tried to look for his prey."
"It makes you more cautious now, going outside your front door, looking around, doing things you didn’t do yesterday, scanning the area," Kelly said.
The first attack happened days before on March 18 while the Miaso family was playing outside at Aztec Park. "I remember Zeke came down the slide and came behind me and was kind of going back up to do the steps to go to the slide again," Curt Miaso recalled about that day. "At the time, I remember my 5-year-old daughter yelling out, 'Coyote! coyote!'" Both kids are expected to be OK, but received rabies shots.
Urban wildlife specialist with the Arizona Game and Fish Department Darren Julian said this "kind of behavior is very unusual," adding, "A normal coyote, when they hear us, see us, smell us, they are hiding away or running away." Julian said the most recent coyote attack was in 2017. Since 1997, humans have been attacked 24 times by coyotes.
Julian believes the same coyote is responsible for both attacks "because of the similarities between the attacks." Residents living in the triangle between 94th Street, Cactus Road and Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard should be on high alert. If you spot a coyote in the area, call 623-236-7201.