DISNEY GATOR ATTACK: TODDLER FOUND DEAD
1 WHAT HAPPENED?
It was the third day of the summer vacation of a family of four from Nebraska at the most magical place on Earth. They sunk into the white sandy beach that stretches along Disney’s luxury Grand Floridian Resort and Spa, one of the features the hotel uses to entice guests, and watched their two-year-old son wade ankle-deep into the man-made lake, known as Seven Seas Lagoon. It was just after 9 p.m. The sun had set. The boy was just beyond the sand. Then, right before them, the parents saw an alligator grab their son and drag him deeper into the water. The father, who was not identified, rushed in and grabbed desperately for his son. He cut his hand but did not win. The alligator took off with the boy. Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said the mother and father, who at different points both ran into the water after the child, shouted for the help of a nearby lifeguard. “The parents diligently tried to get the child,” he said. The gator was reported to be one metre to more than two metres in length.
2 THE SEARCH
Searchers recovered the body of the toddler, identified as Lane Graves of Elkhorn, Neb., at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, according to Demings. Authorities from Disney World, the Orange County Sheriff ’s Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission had deployed more than 50 law enforcement officers in helicopters and boats to the Seven Seas Lagoon. Experienced alligator trappers and divers searched Disney’s network of man-made canals, ponds and lakes. At least five other alligators were caught and cut open before they found the killer.
3 POSTED SIGNS
Signs posted near the lake warn against swimming in it, but there were no signs warning of alligators. The sheriff said there had been no recent reports of any nuisance alligators in the area, but questions about their presence in the lake will be part of the investigation.
4 FLORIDA GATORS
Florida has the largest number of alligators in the United States and made the creature its official state reptile in 1987, according to the National Zoo. About 1.3 million to two million gators live across all 67 counties in Florida, the Orlando Sentinel reported in 2013, and inhabit freshwater marshes, swamps, rivers and lakes. Since 1948, 383 people in the state have suffered alligator bites, according to the wildlife commission. Only 23 of those attacks were fatal. Alligators and crocodiles have jaws strong enough to crack a turtle shell, and prey on fish, snails, birds, frogs and “mammals that come to the water’s edge.” Their viselike grip is nearly impossible to escape because the animals perform a spinning move, called the “death roll,” to drown and subdue their prey.
5 DISNEY’S REACTION
Officials said according to records, this was the first alligator attack at Disney. “Everyone here at the Walt Disney World resort is devastated by this tragic accident,” an official said Wednesday. “Our thoughts are with the family. We are helping the family and doing everything we can to assist law enforcement.”