Wildlife officers later captured and euthanized one coyote as they worked to sort out a cluster of late-March attacks in Carson and nearby Gardena.
CARSON, Calif. — A 3-year-old boy is recovering after a coyote bit him in a Carson parking lot while his parents unloaded their car, an attack that soon became part of a wider investigation into a series of unusually bold encounters involving children in the same area.
The case drew fast attention because it did not end with one family’s scare. In the days after Levi Martinez was hurt at Dignity Health Sports Park on March 30, wildlife officers said one coyote had already been tied through DNA testing to two other attacks on children in Carson. By April 2, officials had captured and euthanized that animal, but they were still sorting through other reports from late March to decide whether one aggressive coyote had moved through the area or whether more than one animal posed a risk.
Levi’s parents said the attack happened Monday evening as they were unloading their vehicle and getting ready to walk their dogs at the sports complex in Carson. Jessica Hernandez said she spotted the animal coming from her left and realized it was closing on the children. “It was darting straight for our boys,” she said. The coyote knocked Levi down, scratched his back and bit his leg, according to his parents. Robert Martinez said the animal did not back off right away. After he scared it away once, the coyote circled back as the family tried to return to the car. Levi was taken to a hospital, treated and released. His parents said he did not need stitches, but doctors gave him rabies shots as a precaution.
What made the case more serious for investigators was the pattern that had already started to form in Carson. State wildlife officials said DNA testing had confirmed that the coyote captured April 2 was responsible for a Feb. 11 attack on a young child in Carson and for a March 31 attack on another child near Moorehaven Drive. That March 31 case, involving a 4-year-old boy, was caught on home surveillance video and pushed the search into public view. Local television station CBS Los Angeles later reported that Levi’s mother said DNA taken from his clothing also matched the same coyote. Officials were still reviewing other evidence tied to a March 26 attack on a 31-year-old woman in Gardena. CDFW spokesperson Cort Klopping said a coyote showing “violent, aggressive tendencies” is a danger to the public.
The setting added to the shock. Dignity Health Sports Park is a large sports campus built for games, practices and family events, with a 26,000-seat stadium and several other athletic venues spread across the property. Levi’s parents said they were in a routine moment between parking and a walk when the attack happened, not in a brushy canyon or at the edge of open land where residents might expect wildlife. That sense of disbelief has run through the other recent Carson cases as well. Families described children standing in driveways, near parked cars or outside homes when coyotes came in quickly. Carson has also dealt with coyote trouble before. CBS Los Angeles reported last August that a 6-year-old boy was attacked during a youth softball tournament in the city, though officials have not said whether the coyote euthanized this week had any connection to that earlier case.
The procedural response moved faster than many neighborhood wildlife complaints do. After the March 31 driveway attack, the Carson Sheriff’s Station said the child had been bitten while family members were unloading a vehicle. Wildlife officers then began overnight efforts to find the animal, focusing on the hours when coyotes are often most active. By Thursday, April 2, officials said the coyote linked to the confirmed Carson attacks had been located, captured and humanely euthanized. CDFW also said it had partnered with the U.S. Department of Agriculture on additional trapping and capture work. That did not close the file. The next step is the lab review and case-by-case comparison of evidence from the late-March reports, especially the Gardena attack, to determine whether the euthanized coyote was the only problem animal or whether another aggressive coyote may still be moving through the South Bay area.
For Levi’s family, the official investigation ran beside a more personal reckoning with how quickly an ordinary evening changed. Robert Martinez said the family had been about a mile from the March 31 Carson attack when Levi was bitten the night before. “It just never dawned on me that a coyote would be that aggressive,” he said. Hernandez said Levi was back to climbing and running around within days, but the fear lingered. That fear has been echoed by other parents and neighbors who said the attacks happened in familiar places where children play, families unload groceries and people move between houses and cars without thinking about predators. In Carson, the question now is not only how Levi heals, but whether the city has seen the end of this cluster of attacks or only the first confirmed piece of it.
As of April 5, Levi was recovering at home and officials had removed one coyote tied to multiple Carson attacks. The remaining milestone is a fuller public accounting of the other late-March reports and whether any unmatched evidence points to another aggressive animal.
Author note: Last updated April 5, 2026.