Police Kill Coyote That Attacked 3 At CenterPoint

ELWOOD, IL - Over the past several weeks, a number of workers at the CenterPoint Intermodal Center made a friend that they kept feeding leftover pizza, other food and table scraps. The creature was a "dangerous and vicious" wild coyote, according to police.

And on Monday night, after the coyote attacked two people at different job sites, an Elwood Police Department officer confronted the wild animal and fatally shot it with his department-issued pistol around 8:50 p.m.

Elwood Police Chief Fred Hayes told Joliet Patch on Wednesday that Officer Tony Lohmar was absolutely correct in his actions of killing the wild animal.

The chief said the coyote had just attacked two different workers, jumping on them and biting them as they were completely oblivious to the wild animal until it bit them.

Hayes said that the two employees were treated and released from St. Joe's Hospital in Joliet for puncture wounds, scratches and bite marks, but there injuries are not serious. Incidentally, while at the hospital, officers encountered another CenterPoint employee who was being treated after being bitten on a previous date.

The three bite victims were two men ages 25 and 26 and a woman age 36, Hayes said. On Tuesday, Will County Animal Control informed police the coyote did not have rabies, Hayes said.

"We don't really want to put down wild animals but in this instance, this was a dangerous and vicious wild animal that had attacked people and bit people," Hayes said. "We really think that the problem was that other employees have been feeding the coyote pizza, food scraps, leaving out garbage cans."

Hayes believes that the coyote started associating human beings with food, and that's why the coyote attacked the three innocent people, none of them were attempting to feed the animal at the time it jumped on them and bit them, he said.

In fact, all three of them were blindsided by the animal at the time of the attack, Hayes said.

"All three of these people never saw the coyote until it attacked them."

Businesses at CenterPoint are now taking measures to erect signs and train their employees not to feed any wild animals, especially coyotes, Hayes said.

The Elwood Police Department does not want to have any more similar attacks, the chief said.

"This is extremely unusual," he added.

On Wednesday morning, Hayes spoke with WJOL radio about the coyote attacks. To hear his radio interview, visit this link to WJOL.

Images provided to Joliet Patch by Elwood Police Department