June 8, 2013
Daytona Beach, FL - A large alligator was shot and killed by a Daytona Beach police officer after it allegedly made threatening moves against nearby residents.
In his monthly “Ask The Chief” appearance on WNDB’s Marc Bernier program, Daytona Beach police chief Mike Chitwood says the incident started around 12:43pm Friday at a retention pond on the 1000 block of George W. Engram Boulevard.
“There’s a woman who said that her kids had been going in through the hole in the fence and feeding the gator and poking it with a stick,” Chitwood told Bernier.
The person who called for help told the responding officer 4 kids were “throwing things” at the gator just north of the Jackson Avenue intersection and that the gator was walking towards the children and acting aggressive.
When the responding officer reached the pond with the woman who called for help, the officer said the gator heard the sound of their voices and followed them as they walked around the fence which surrounded the pond.
A sergeant was called to the scene soon after, and it was when he was there that Chitwood said they learned the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission wasn’t going to be able to send a trapper to get the gator for 2 hours and that the trapper planned to kill the gator anyway since it had lost its fear of humans and was too dangerous to be left alive.
“The sergeant elected [to shoot it] before the thing got into the storm water drain and got away into another pond, where maybe it would’ve attacked a child or whatever,” Chitwood said.
According to the incident report, that’s when police had the lock to the fence gate cut by a tow truck worker who had stopped to assist and they entered the fenced-in area.
The report says the sergeant pointed his M-16 and fired once at the gator’s head from about 10 feet away as it swam “very aggressively” towards them, then fired 2 more shots between the gator’s eyes as it thrashed around in the water.
Chitwood said it was not the first time people in the area had complained about the creature.
“There was a pastor of a church who said he had been calling [F.W.C.] because the gator is out and it had been menacing and threatening and nobody did anything,” Chitwood added.
An F.W.C. trapper showed up to collect the dead alligator afterwards and told officers the gator was over 10 feet in length, per the incident report.
Copyright 2013 Southern Stone Communications.
Source: WNDB
Daytona Beach, FL - A large alligator was shot and killed by a Daytona Beach police officer after it allegedly made threatening moves against nearby residents.
In his monthly “Ask The Chief” appearance on WNDB’s Marc Bernier program, Daytona Beach police chief Mike Chitwood says the incident started around 12:43pm Friday at a retention pond on the 1000 block of George W. Engram Boulevard.
“There’s a woman who said that her kids had been going in through the hole in the fence and feeding the gator and poking it with a stick,” Chitwood told Bernier.
The person who called for help told the responding officer 4 kids were “throwing things” at the gator just north of the Jackson Avenue intersection and that the gator was walking towards the children and acting aggressive.
When the responding officer reached the pond with the woman who called for help, the officer said the gator heard the sound of their voices and followed them as they walked around the fence which surrounded the pond.
A sergeant was called to the scene soon after, and it was when he was there that Chitwood said they learned the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission wasn’t going to be able to send a trapper to get the gator for 2 hours and that the trapper planned to kill the gator anyway since it had lost its fear of humans and was too dangerous to be left alive.
“The sergeant elected [to shoot it] before the thing got into the storm water drain and got away into another pond, where maybe it would’ve attacked a child or whatever,” Chitwood said.
According to the incident report, that’s when police had the lock to the fence gate cut by a tow truck worker who had stopped to assist and they entered the fenced-in area.
The report says the sergeant pointed his M-16 and fired once at the gator’s head from about 10 feet away as it swam “very aggressively” towards them, then fired 2 more shots between the gator’s eyes as it thrashed around in the water.
Chitwood said it was not the first time people in the area had complained about the creature.
“There was a pastor of a church who said he had been calling [F.W.C.] because the gator is out and it had been menacing and threatening and nobody did anything,” Chitwood added.
An F.W.C. trapper showed up to collect the dead alligator afterwards and told officers the gator was over 10 feet in length, per the incident report.
Copyright 2013 Southern Stone Communications.
Source: WNDB
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