UPDATE: Fish And Wildlife Officials Say DNA Links Same Coyote To 3 East Bay Attacks
CONTRA COSTA COUNTY (CBS SF) -- After the latest in a series of coyote attacks in the East Bay, animal experts now say the same coyote has attacked people in three different incidents.
On Tuesday outside a Diablo Foods grocery store in Lafayette, California Department of Fish and Wildlife officials said the coyote bit a clerk who was out behind the store.
DNA from that bite traces back to the same coyote that bit a man who was running at the track of Campolindo High School in Moraga earlier this month.
The man attacked, Kenji Sytz, told KPIX 5 that he was just wrapping up his exercises when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his leg.
"There was literally a coyote latched on to my left calf," Sytz said. "I'm working out and all I can think is, like, I have two friends with me! Is one of them -- 'Did someone do something to my leg?' Because it first felt like a pinch but then it was a sharp pain."
Sytz said he had to hit the coyote in the face before it let go of his leg. The attack left him with a few cuts and two large puncture wounds on his calf. He was treated at Kaiser hospital in Walnut Creek and released.
The DNA that the Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel tested also matched the same coyote that attacked a two-year-old boy at Moraga Commons Park back in July.
CDFW officials are working to trap the animal.
