A local sheriff’s deputy has killed the mountain lion that attacked and wounded a 3-year-old child in a Southern California wilderness park before the boy’s father chased the cougar off, state wildlife officials said on Tuesday (Jan 21). The man told authorities that he and his family of six were hiking on a trail at the Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park in Orange County on Monday when the cougar pounced, said Captain Patrick Foy of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. “A mountain lion came out of a tree and attacked his son right in front of him,” Foy said. The cougar latched on to the boy with its jaws, and the man shouted aggressively and lunged at the predator. The man then threw his backpack at the cougar, Foy said, which let go of the boy and fled up a tree with the pack in its mouth, he said. The boy sustained claw and bite wounds to his torso and neck and was treated and released from a hospital, Foy said.