Police say the woman injured in the attack was stung hundreds of times. NBC 7’s Omari Fleming spoke to the good Samaritan who was also hurt coming to her rescue.
Parents in a Scripps Ranch neighborhood are worried about their kids after witnessing three people, including a little girl, get stung by a swarm of bees. Police say the woman injured in the attack was stung hundreds of times.
Doorbell video captured the screams to call 911 as chaos unfolded around 5 p.m. on Monday at Fairbrook Neighborhood Park in Scripps Ranch.
"I heard a lady screaming on the other side of the street," Val Catanzarite said.
Catanzarite says he just arrived at the park with his 5-year-old granddaughter when he heard the cry for help and saw a woman blanketed by bees.
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"She was covered," Catanzarite said. "She was face down on the sidewalk. There must have been a thousand bees."
The retired doctor raced to the rescue, but despite multiple tries to help the woman, he wasn’t able to get close.
“I got a towel from the car and tried to swat them away, and they just came after me,” Catanzarite said.
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When asked what made him run into harms way, Catanzarite said, “If you saw a grandmother being attacked by bees, you would do the same thing. Although the bee guy ran the other way. He got his bee suit on, and he was gone."
The attack happened after neighbors say the exterminator hit the hive.
Police say the unidentified woman was hospitalized after being stung hundreds of times, as was Catanzarite.
The 70-year-old grandad got choked up thinking about his granddaughter, who got stung eight times.
"My granddaughter is just totally freaked out. This is a five-year-old, just traumatized," Catanzarite said.
A day after the attack, bees are still buzzing around the green utility cover at the park.
A two-week-old report on the city of San Diego’s “Get It Done” app reported the bees as a danger to people and children walking on the sidewalk. The area is now cordoned off, with the city and exterminators working to remedy the problem.
Meanwhile, Catanzarite and his neighbors say they're working through the anguish of what happened.
“For me, the trauma is granddaughter and the other person injured that I couldn't do anything for," Catanzarite said.
Neighbors told NBC 7 the woman was released from the hospital on Wednesday evening.
NBC 7 reached out to the pest control company. Its after-hours answering service said we should expect a response on Thursday.
