Two King County Coyote Attacks Reported In The Past Two Days

In an updated statement this afternoon, WDFW is now reporting that two Bellevue residents have been bitten by presumably the same coyote in the past two days – including a man inside his own garage late this morning.

Earlier today, the agency reported that a woman was sitting in her patio Thursday morning around 5:15 a.m. when a coyote came up behind her and bit her leg and then pursued her as she took shelter in her house.

The incident occurred in the Norwood Village neighborhood, which is on the northeast side of the I-90/I-405 spaghetti junction on the south side of Bellevue.

The woman was treated later in the day for “minor injuries” at a local hospital, WDFW reported.

And in its updated statement, WDFW said that around 10 a.m. this morning they received a report from the nearby Factoria area of Bellevue about a coyote that had come into an open garage and bitten a man on his leg.

The man too later went to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries.

“Fish and Wildlife Officers and Wildlife Conflict staff responded to the scene to locate the coyote. Officers will be increasing patrols in the area and are posting signs at nearby recreational trails,” WDFW said.

It’s the third coyote attack in the general area in just over two months.

Back in late December and about 7.75 miles to the south of the Norwood Village incident, a 5-year-old boy was bitten by a coyote and pulled to the ground in Renton’s Maplewood Heights neighborhood before his mother scared off the animal. The boy was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and released

Agency officers were unable to immediately find that coyote.

WDFW spokeswoman Becky Elder allows that it’s plausible that the same coyote is responsible for the first Bellevue and Renton incidents, but says the agency believes that “most likely this is a different animal and the two incidents are not linked.”

However, they say it is “presumed” that the same animal is responsible for the Norwood Village and Factoria attacks in Bellevue this week.

The area has an odd history of coyotes going after people.

Nineteen years ago this April, a coyote bit two Bellevue boys in a single afternoon about a month after a coyote bit a Bellevue woman in the leg while she was walking on a sidewalk. All three incidents occurred in the Eastgate area, which is quite close to Norwood Village and not far from Factoria. A toy poodle was also attacked about 2 miles away in the same period.

Two days later that spring, a WDFW sergeant shot and killed a male coyote in the area as it approached him while walking down a wooded trail.

WDFW’s advice for living with coyotes includes not leaving young kids in areas coyotes are often seen or heard, as well as preventing access to food items, be that garbage, compost or fattening up the neighborhood feral cats, which coyotes eat.