A huge alligator was captured dragging the lifeless body of a Floridian down a canal.
A witness spotted the large reptile on a residential street in Largo, four miles south of Clearwater, Florida. Video taken at the scene appears to show the animal is more than 10 feet in length.
Speaking to Bay Spectrum News 9, JaMarcus Bullard said: “I could tell there was a body in his mouth, so I started recording.”
Bullard was on his way to a job interview and called the Largo Fire Department stationed down the street from where the animal was spotted.
Resident Jennifer Dean said: “A lot of my neighbors were out here and they’re the ones that told me about the gator. While we were standing here we heard a shot, I assume they killed the gator.”
Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the victim and the alligator were pulled from a local canal but didn’t elaborate on the gunshot.
Investigators were filmed standing next to the bloodied beast and it is unclear whether it killed the victim or if they died another way. They measured the animal which came in at nearly 14 feet.
The area of the incident is near the popular Ridgecrest Park – the five-acre lake there is known to be home to alligators.
Dean said the gators routinely wander her neighborhood but this was the largest she had ever seen. Investigators are still trying to determine the victim’s cause of death.
The news comes just two months after a 69-year-old South Carolina woman was mauled to death by an alligator while walking her dog.
The reptile proceeded to guard her body and was eventually moved to a rural location. Animals will also sometimes be euthanized in such situations.
Although relatively rare, fatal alligator attacks occur in the US – at least four people were killed by alligators in 2022.
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