PICO RIVERA, Calif. (AP) — Forty cows escaped a slaughterhouse and ended up in a Los Angeles suburb where one was killed after charging a family, authorities said Wednesday.

The cows were reported running loose on the streets of Pico Rivera around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday after a gate at a meat packing facility was accidentally left open, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement.

The herd made its way to a neighborhood about a mile (1.6 kilometers) away and one cow charged at four members of a family, knocking them to the ground. They suffered minor injuries.

A sheriff’s deputy shot and killed the cow to protect the family from further injury, the sheriff’s department said. The family members were taken to a hospital for treatment.

Pico Rivera City Manager Steve Carmona told KTLA-TV that at one point he had to jump onto a car to get out of the way of the herd.

“It was a pretty scary ordeal,” he said.

The sheriff’s unit that rides horses was dispatched to help recapture and transport the cows.

“Of the forty, thirty-eight were safely captured, one was shot, and one has not been located,” the department said.

UPDATE:

An escaped cow was in a standoff with Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies in a park on Thursday.

TV news helicopters showed several patrol cars parked near the cow as it stood in a clearing in the Whittier Narrows area, a large recreation and natural area about 10 miles (16 kilometers) east of downtown Los Angeles.

The cow was among 40 that escaped from a slaughterhouse Tuesday evening and ran through a neighborhood in suburban Pico Rivera, where one was shot and killed when it charged at a family and all but one were later rounded up.

–Associated Press

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