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mahatmakanejeeves

(60,685 posts)
Mon Apr 30, 2018, 03:50 PM Apr 2018

Off-duty officer throttles coyote during playground attack

Off-duty officer jumps on coyote during playground attack on 5-year-old girl, tries to 'squeeze the life out of it' before other police shoot and kill it.



Off-duty officer throttles coyote during playground attack

Today

THORNWOOD, N.Y. (AP) — An off-duty police officer jumped on a coyote and throttled it as the animal attacked a 5-year-old girl on a suburban New York playground. ... Kasey King-Petrellese told WNBC that the coyote appeared out of nowhere and bolted “like a cheetah” toward her daughter, Natalia, and 3-year-old son on Sunday in Thornwood. ... As they fled toward their car, the animal gained on them, first menacing the boy.

“I took my foot and I kicked him as hard as I could in his face, which knocked him to the ground and he stumbled a little. And when he got up he swung over to my daughter’s side and bit her arm,” said King-Petrellese. ... “It was trying to get my brother but it didn’t,” Natalia recounted. “It made me bleed on the arm.”

Off-duty Irvington police Officer Arcangelo Liberatore had spotted the coyote lurking nearby. He and his wife were getting their own children safely into their car when he heard screaming, saw the attack and doubled back, according to the Journal News. ... As King-Petrellese repeatedly punched the coyote, Liberatore — a martial arts practitioner — jumped on top of it, clutched its neck and slammed its head on the ground.

“I just sat and tried to squeeze the life out of it,” Liberatore told WNBC. “But it was pretty resilient.”
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Off-duty officer throttles coyote during playground attack (Original Post) mahatmakanejeeves Apr 2018 OP
That is unusual behavior for coyotes. CaliforniaPeggy Apr 2018 #1
I've always found them to be incredibly brazen, shanny Apr 2018 #2

CaliforniaPeggy

(151,919 posts)
1. That is unusual behavior for coyotes.
Mon Apr 30, 2018, 04:10 PM
Apr 2018

Normally they are afraid of people and will flee if we get even a little bit close.

This one may have been sick, or guarding a female with pups.

 

shanny

(6,709 posts)
2. I've always found them to be incredibly brazen,
Mon Apr 30, 2018, 07:05 PM
Apr 2018

much more so than wolves. Oddly, that pattern mimics their larger predator cousins, bears: grizzly/brown bears are ghosts, black bears stroll right up (used to live in Alaska and NW territory--had plenty of experience, almost too much).

That said, that coyote does sound desperate, or sick. Good job by the officer.

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