Alligator Attack: Texas Man Mocks Alligator, Is Attacked After Jumping In The Water
An alligator attack took place earlier this week, marking the first fatal alligator attack in Texas in over two centuries, Newsweek reports.
On Friday, July 3, a man, who mocked an alligator, jumped into the gator-infested waters at Burkart’s Marina near the Louisiana state line, only to be attacked moments later.
Orange County Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told KFDM that Tommie Woodward, 28, and an unidentified woman were swimming in the bayou, despite warning signs regarding the alligators, on Friday morning. While the woman was not injured, Woodward was attacked, with his body emerging several hours later.
“He removed his shirt, removed his billfold… someone shouted a warning and he said ‘blank the alligators’ and jumped in to the water and almost immediately yelled for help,” Price said.
“Please do not go swimming, there’s a bigger alligator out here. Just please stay out of the water,” Michelle Wright, a witness to the attack and a waitress at the marina, had told Tommie. The next thing Wright recalled hearing was a woman yelling “an alligator’s got him!” Wright then took a flashlight to scan the water, witnessing the horrific attack firsthand.
The man killed by an alligator in Texas had mocked animal before jumping into water: official. http://t.co/PKRdp7xRhM pic.twitter.com/UiD8PfBwEB
— New York Daily News (@NYDailyNews) July 5, 2015
“Next thing I know this girl is screaming an alligators got him, an alligator’s got him and I grab a flashlight trying to zoom it over the water, trying to find him,” Wright said. “The next thing I know, I don’t even know how long it was, I saw his body floating face down and then he’s up there for a couple seconds and then he gets dragged back down and pulled off.”
“I kept trying to figure out and calling his name and calling his name and he just, he was dead. And it’s heartbreaking,” Wright said.
Woodward’s body was discovered nearly two hours later, approximately 200 yards from where the attack took place. Now, his friends and family members are questioning why he insisted on going swimming, knowing the danger that lied ahead.
“Whether it’s a speed limit sign on a freeway, a fireworks message, whatever, heed the warning sign, follow that because a failure to heed that can result in a terrible tragedy for your family,” Judge Price said.
Woodward’s death comes just days after an alligator in Florida emerged from the bank and snatched up a couple’s dachshund, known as Cody. Despite the owner’s attempts to rescue him, the alligator escaped back into the water with Cody in his grasps, ultimately resulting in his death.
[Photo via Shutterstock]
