A coyote who attacked a young Saginaw boy in his front yard on Wednesday was shot and killed when it continued to stand its ground, the boy's father said.
"A coyote knocked me down and did this," 3-year-old Colton Coursey said, pointing to a scratch on his hand.
His mother had gone inside briefly but raced back out.
"All of a sudden I hear him scream, and I come back out and I see him on the ground and the coyote a few feet from him," Ricca Coursey said.
The boy's father, who was inside taking a shower, also rushed outside.
"I could see the fear on his face," Jarred Coursey said. "I knew something had happened. As a dad, it just took over me to take care of the situation."
He said he tried to scare the coyote away, but it refused to back off.
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"The coyote was standing right here," Jarred Coursey said. "It just turned and faced me straight on. I was saying, 'Get out, get out,' and it would not move."
He got his shotgun and killed the animal.
Coyotes -- pushed into neighborhoods by development and the drought -- are a problem in cities across North Texas.
"It's very nerve-wracking to know that you can come out and there's a coyote in the front yard," the mother said.
Saginaw animal control officers took the animal, and tests showed it did not have rabies, the family said.
