Boy, 6, Mauled by Cougar in 2nd Caspers Park Attack

A mountain lion seized and mauled a 6-year-old Huntington Beach boy as he, his parents and others hiked up a nature trail in the Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park on Sunday. It was the second such attack on a child this year in the park.

The seriously injured child, Justin Mellon, was rescued by his father, who drove off the animal with a hunting knife.

A 5-year-old El Toro girl, Laura Michele Small, was similarly seized and badly mauled by a mountain lion in the same park last March 23. The girl’s parents have filed a $28-million lawsuit against the county, the state Department of Fish and Game and others, claiming authorities failed to warn the public of a danger they knew existed.

On Aug. 24, U.S. Forest Service firefighter Kenneth Jordan, 29, said he was charged but not injured by a mountain lion in the 7,500-acre park.

Wildlife experts and biologists have said a 15-year-old ban on shooting mountain lions, combined with encroaching civilization, has concentrated more of the normally wary cats in smaller areas nearer to man.

The county park, located east of San Juan Capistrano, was closed Sunday shortly after the noon attack, while park rangers and wildlife biologists stalked the animal.

Justin, a kindergarten student and Little League baseball player, struggled with the mountain lion several minutes before he was rescued, said his father, Timothy Mellon, 28.

“He never did cry that entire time; he just fought that mountain lion, which had to weigh at least 150 pounds,” his father said.

“Justin fought and struggled with the animal down a hill, until I got to him. . . . But as I was running back down the trail with him in my arms, he kept asking me, ‘Am I going to live?’ ”

A spokeswoman at Mission Community Hospital in Mission Viejo said the boy was in “stable condition” with cuts to the back of his head, arms and legs. His father, in an interview at the hospital after Justin emerged from three hours of surgery, said doctors told him and the boy’s mother, Ann Forgy, 30, of Huntington Beach, that their son is “going to be all right.”

“Justin is stubborn, and he’s smart,” he said. “The lion had Justin by the head when I got to him, but they (the doctors) tell me his skull wasn’t damaged.”

The attack apparently took place near the area where Laura Small was grabbed. But park officials said Sunday night that they still were sorting out facts, including the exact location of the incident.

Timothy Mellon said the attack on his son took place about a half-mile from a campground area in the popular wooded park off Ortega Highway.

The father gave the following account of the incident:

“It happened about five minutes to 12 on Sunday. A bunch of us were walking on the trail. I don’t know exactly where it was, but it was about a half-mile from the road and a campground. We crossed by a creek, but we weren’t very far into the trail. The kids had been there the week before and had a fun time playing with a (rope) swing back in there. We were going back to the same location.

“There were 10 of us walking the trail. . . . Justin was up front with the kids until he fell behind to tie his shoe. Then he ran to catch up, and he ran around a bend in the trail. The kids were about 20 feet in front of us, around the bend in the trail. They were out of vision.

“As we (adults) came up to the bend, we heard the children’s laughter turn into screaming.

“His sister Aimee came running back to us, and she had sheer terror on her face. We knew something was terribly wrong.

“I threw off my pack and ran around the bend. As soon as I could turn the corner, I could see the mountain lion on top of Justin. There was an incline in the path, and Justin and the lion were about 10 feet up that incline.

“The mountain lion was trying to get him in a position where it could drag him away. But Justin was fighting him on his back for dear life and rolling down (the incline) at the same time. When I saw the lion, it had Justin by the head. At that point, I ran at it with a knife--I had a hunting knife with me. Right before I got to it, it (the lion) released him.

“As soon as it released him, I dropped my knife and I grabbed Justin and handed him to his mother, who was behind me. Then the lion looked like it was going to attack me, so I picked up my knife real quick and stood there facing it. The lion went back and forth, as if trying to decide whether to attack me.

“Then my friend, Bill, came around the corner, and he was yelling his brains out, telling us to get out of there. I started moving back slowly, then Bill and I both started yelling at the lion. Then the cat took off in the direction towards where Ann was going with Justin.

‘Cat Was Running’

“We ran to Ann, and the cat was running (in the woods) parallel to us. Ann told me she couldn’t carry Justin any further, and I took him and started running. I think that lion was wondering where Justin was and was following him.

“Bill took over carrying (Justin) part of the way. We got back to the campground, and a real nice lady in a mobile home helped us. Then I drove to a ranger’s station, and they called for a helicopter, and Justin was airlifted to the hospital.”

Bill Musser, 28, also of Huntington Beach, described the mountain lion as “a huge animal--a beautiful animal if you saw it in a zoo.”

He said the lion “was at least 150 to 175 pounds.”

On March 24, the day after Laura Small was attacked, state Department of Fish and Game personnel tracked down a mountain lion and killed it, not far from where the girl was mauled.

At the time, game officials said the incident with Laura was the first known attack by a mountain lion on a human since 1909.

Encounter in August

In August, Kenneth Jordan, a U.S. Forest Service fire engine operator, was jogging in a remote area of Caspers Park when he was confronted by a 150-pound mountain lion. The lion made three charges at him, Jordan said, but he managed to keep it back by waving and screaming.

Caspers Park was closed from March 23 until April 14. Since then, however, there have been several reported sightings of mountain lions in or near the park.

“We get sightings almost every day; that’s no secret,” said Tony Gimbrone, parks district supervisor, in a telephone interview Sunday from Caspers Park.

He added: “(It’s) not necessarily seeing the lion itself-sometimes just tracks. I’d say we actually see a lion once a week. We have mountain lions living in this park and in the surrounding hills.”

Justin’s parents said they saw no warning signs in the park about the possibility of mountain lions.

‘In Shock’

Forgy said she was “in shock” when she came upon the scene where her son had just been freed by his father from the mountain lion. “I don’t remember carrying Justin,” she said. “I just had him in my arms, I guess, and kept running back down that trail.”

Mellon and Forgy said after they ran back with their injured son, more hikers were still going up the trail, including families with young children. Park officials, however, said the park was cleared of people and shut down soon after the attack.

“I had terrible feeling about my son and those children going into that park because I’d read about the other mountain lion attack on that little girl,” said Justin’s grandmother, Donna Carpenter, of Norco. She was among family members waiting Sunday afternoon for Justin to come out of surgery at Mission Community Hospital.

“My reaction is that I can’t believe they would allow this to happen again,” said Laura’s mother, Susan Small, in a telephone interview Sunday night. The girl’s father, Donald, added: “They knew there were more lions there. I expected something like this.”

Times staff writers Steve Emmons and Maria L. LaGanga contributed to this story.