5-Year-Old Attacked by Mountain Lion During Family Outing at Malibu Creek State Park on Labor Day Near Los Angeles

A Southern California family’s Labor Day weekend picnic turned into a horrific ordeal when a mountain lion attacked a 5-year-old child and tried to take him into the woods, forcing his relatives to save him from the wild animal’s jaws, according to authorities.

The bold attack occurred at 4:21 p.m. local time Sunday in Malibu Creek State Park, approximately 30 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles, and left the youngster with “significant but non-life-threatening injuries,” according to a statement from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

According to the statement, a family of six adults and numerous children from Woodland Hills, California, was picnicking at a park in the Santa Monica Mountains when the huge cougar approached and seized the boy as his family and bystanders stared in despair.

“The children were playing near the family’s picnic table when the mountain lion attacked the boy,” fish and wildlife officials said. “One or more adults charged at the lion, and it released the boy.”

The boy, whose name was not given, received bite and scratch wounds and was airlifted to Northridge Hospital Medical Center, where he was treated and released, officials said.

“Multiple witnesses saw the attack and observed the mountain lion climb up a nearby tree,” according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife.

When state park rangers and Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies arrived, they said that the mountain lion remained in the tree.

According to officials, the CDFW “deemed the mountain lion a threat to public safety” and exterminated the animal by shooting it.

According to officials, wildlife officers proceeded to Northridge Hospital Medical Center and collected evidence samples from the child’s bite and scratch wounds, as well as his clothing, following regular protocol.

“Those samples were confirmed a DNA match by the CDFW’s Wildlife Forensic Lab in Sacramento,” according to officials.

The incident occurred after a 21-year-old man was killed by a cougar that attacked him and his 18-year-old son in May in Northern California’s El Dorado National Forest, approximately 52 miles northeast of Sacramento. Officials reported that it was the state’s first deadly mountain lion attack in 20 years.

Since 1890, less than 50 mountain lion assaults on humans have been reported in California, with six fatalities, officials said.

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