Officials said the child is recovering after the bite, and wildlife officers later tied one coyote to multiple attacks in and around Carson.
CARSON, Calif. — A 3-year-old boy is recovering after a coyote bit him twice in a Carson parking lot, an attack that alarmed his family and quickly became part of a broader wildlife investigation spanning several recent cases in the same area.
The attack mattered beyond one frightening moment because state wildlife officers were already tracking aggressive coyote behavior nearby. By the end of the week, authorities said DNA testing had linked one coyote to more than one attack in Carson, and officials were still reviewing whether the same animal was involved in other recent encounters, including the case involving Levi Martinez. The child did not need stitches, according to his family, but he was treated at a hospital and given a rabies vaccine. The immediate stakes were twofold: Levi’s recovery and the urgent push by wildlife officials to determine whether a dangerous animal was still moving through a heavily populated part of Los Angeles County.
Levi’s parents said the attack happened Monday evening as the family was unloading their car at Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson. Jessica Hernandez and Robert Martinez said they were preparing to walk their dogs when the coyote rushed toward their children. Hernandez said she saw the animal coming fast from her left and realized it was heading straight for the boys. The attack unfolded in seconds. The coyote knocked Levi down and bit him twice before adults around him could react. His parents took him to a hospital, where he was treated and released. In television interviews aired after the attack, the family described the scene as sudden and chaotic, the kind of event they never expected in a parking lot outside a sports complex. Within a few days, Levi’s mother said, he was climbing and running around again, but the shock of the encounter had not lifted.
Officials have released only limited medical detail, but the family’s account and follow-up reports paint a clear picture of how close the attack came to becoming worse. Levi did not require stitches, his parents said, though he was given rabies shots as a precaution after the bites. Wildlife officials did not publicly describe the full wound pattern in his case, and authorities have not said exactly how long the coyote remained near the family after the attack. What they did say is that the incident did not stand alone. State wildlife officials received reports of other recent coyote attacks in the same general area, including one involving a 31-year-old woman in Gardena on March 26 and another involving a young child in Carson. By Friday, officials said DNA testing had connected one coyote to multiple attacks in Carson. Samples from some of the other victims were still being reviewed, leaving open the possibility that more than one aggressive animal had been moving through the area.
The setting helps explain why the case drew so much attention. Carson is a dense South Bay city threaded with homes, major roads, parks and sports facilities, not a remote edge of the county where residents might expect close wildlife contact. Dignity Health Sports Park, where Levi’s family said he was attacked, is known as a major venue for soccer and other events, a place associated with families and crowds rather than predator encounters. Yet the region has seen repeated coyote conflicts in recent years, especially in neighborhoods where animals can move between landscaped lots, drainage corridors and commercial edges. Those conditions can bring coyotes near people without much warning. Officials have not said what specifically drew this animal to the area where Levi was hurt, but later coverage of the broader investigation pointed to the concern that at least one coyote had become unusually bold around children and adults. That shift, more than the presence of coyotes alone, is what turned Levi’s case into a larger public issue.
The investigation moved quickly after the attack. State wildlife officers were already working another Carson case involving a child when Levi’s family came forward. Authorities said DNA testing confirmed that the same coyote was responsible for an earlier Feb. 11 attack on a young child in Carson and a March 31 attack on another child there. Officials also said they were examining whether that same animal was involved in the March 26 Gardena case and in Levi’s March 30 attack at the sports park. By Friday, wildlife officials announced that a coyote tied to multiple attacks had been captured and humanely euthanized. Even so, the case was not entirely closed. Testing on samples from some victims was still pending, and officials had not publicly resolved every reported attack. That left investigators with procedural work still ahead: lab analysis, review of incident reports and final determinations about whether one problem animal was responsible or whether more than one aggressive coyote had to be considered.
The voices around Levi’s case stayed close to the ground, centered less on policy than on the plain fear of what happened. Hernandez described looking up and realizing the coyote was charging her children. Robert Martinez said the attack changed the way the family sees a place they had treated as routine and familiar. In follow-up coverage about the broader Carson incidents, other families expressed a similar sense of disbelief that a coyote would come so close to homes, children and parked cars in daylight or early evening. The details varied from case to case, but the emotional thread was consistent: none of the families expected an animal to close distance that fast and target a child. Levi’s recovery gave this story one measure of relief. His parents said he was active again within days. But the relief came beside a harsher reality, that his case had become one chapter in a run of attacks that forced wildlife officers to escalate from monitoring and testing to removing an animal they believed posed a continuing danger.
As of the latest public update, Levi was recovering at home and wildlife officials said a coyote linked to several Carson-area attacks had been euthanized. The next milestone is the completion of any remaining DNA testing and a fuller accounting from authorities on whether Levi’s attack was part of the same chain of incidents.
Author note: Last updated April 4, 2026.