A large coyote chased 3-year-old Salvo Bessemer through his own front gate in broad daylight.
His mother, Aida Svelto, was right behind him – and what she saw next sent her screaming into the street.
The whole thing was caught on surveillance camera, and now the city of Pasadena has a question it can't answer.
Coyote Attack on Toddler Caught on Home Surveillance Video
It happened Monday afternoon, February 23, on Tamarac Drive in Pasadena.
Little Sal did what he always does – ran out the front gate ahead of his mom toward the car.
He froze.
Then he turned and sprinted back toward the house, screaming.
The coyote came right behind him – through the gate, across the driveway, past the camera.
"Sal went out the gate like he always does before me," Svelto told ABC7. "Then I heard a scream, and Sal came running back. He grabbed onto my legs, then I screamed because I saw a big, giant coyote."
The mother's screams drove the animal off – briefly.
Then the coyote came back.
It stood at the edge of the property, staring at them from the trees, unwilling to leave.
"I waited a second, we came outside, and I said, 'Look, Sal, the coyote is gone,'" Svelto told CBS Los Angeles. "The coyote was not gone. It was right there, just staring at us."
Salvo was unharmed.
"She texted me. She's like, 'A coyote just chased Sal,'" his father Leonard Bessemer told ABC7. "I checked the cameras. I was flabbergasted."
"This one was bigger and scarier, and I just really didn't think that he would go after a kid," Svelto added. "It's one thing to see them go after a chihuahua or rabbit or whatever, but he's pretty big, so it was scary."
California Coyote Attacks on Children Have Been Rising for Decades
What California officials don't want you to think about is this: the only confirmed fatal coyote attack on a child in American history happened just miles from Tamarac Drive.
In August 1981, a 3-year-old girl named Kelly Keen was dragged off her family's property and killed by an urban coyote in Glendale – the same hilly suburban Los Angeles terrain where Salvo Bessemer lives today.
In the 45 years since, coyote encounters in California have not declined.
Researchers documented 89 verified coyote attacks in California between 1978 and 2003 alone.
By 2015, the national total had reached 367 documented attacks – and nearly half happened in California.
In Los Angeles, attacks on humans rose from two in 2011 to 16 by 2016.
The pattern of who gets targeted is not random.
Researchers found that 75% of child victims were playing outside in their yard or driveway when a coyote came for them.
Researchers also documented a predictable escalation sequence: nighttime pet attacks, then daytime pet attacks, then coyotes approaching children's play areas in the middle of the day.
Pasadena residents had been reporting exactly that sequence for three years before Sal came sprinting back through his front gate.
Pasadena Adopted a Nonlethal Coyote Plan and the Attacks Kept Coming
The city of Pasadena knew it had a problem.
In 2022, residents reported 159 coyote incidents to the city's service center – a dozen involving killed or injured pets.
At a 2023 council meeting, Councilmember Tyron Hampton put it plainly: the coyote population had exploded, and the animals were no longer afraid of humans.
In April 2025, residents near Euclid Avenue and California Boulevard reported aggressive encounters, including animals chasing people walking dogs.
The city's response at each step was the same: education, hazing workshops, coexistence guidelines.
The Pasadena City Council voted unanimously in July 2023 to adopt a nonlethal management plan.
They looked at Torrance, which had tried trapping and euthanization – and noted that coyote sightings there actually increased after removals began, as new animals moved into vacated territory.
So Pasadena chose workshops instead.
The city held a coyote hazing seminar on February 7 – sixteen days before a coyote chased a toddler through his front gate.
Kevin McManus of Pasadena Humane told reporters afterward that the animals are out at all hours right now because it's mating season.
His advice: "Just be extra cautious. Keep an eye on your kids. Keep an eye on your pets."
California Chose This
The 2025 Los Angeles wildfires displaced hundreds of wildlife species and pushed animals deeper into residential neighborhoods.
State officials knew this would happen.
Their response was the same approach that's been failing for decades.
And this is the part that should make every parent in Southern California furious.
Wildlife researchers spelled out the warning signs in documented studies.
Cities that acted early – trapping specific problem animals, enforcing hazing at the community level, managing food attractants aggressively – saw measurable reductions in bold daytime behavior.
Cities that held workshops and issued guidelines did not.
Pasadena saw the data.
They chose the guidelines.
And a 3-year-old named Sal came within seconds of a very different ending than the one his family got.
Sources:
- Bonny Chu, "Toddler Flees in Terror as Coyote Chases Him Outside California Family Home in Broad Daylight," Fox News, February 25, 2026.
- "Coyote Chases 3-Year-Old Through Front Gate of Pasadena Home," Pasadena Now, February 24, 2026.
- "Video Shows Coyote Chasing 3-Year-Old Boy Outside Pasadena Home," KTLA, February 2026.
- "Pasadena Grapples with 'Exploding' Coyote Population," KTLA, April 2023.
- "Coyote Alert: Here's Why Sightings Are Increasing Across Southern California," Fox 11 Los Angeles, January 9, 2026.
- Rex O. Baker and Robert M. Timm, "Coyote Attacks on Humans, 1970–2015," Human–Wildlife Interactions, 2017.
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