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Authorities Trap and Kill 10-foot Alligator That Attacked Woman In Florida

By Pam Wright
Published on: 22:45 PST, Jul 9, 2016

A woman was hospitalized Friday afternoon after an alligator bit her arm as she waded in the Econlockhatchee River in the Little Big Econ State Forest, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said.

The alligator, which measured nearly 11 feet, bit the woman around 2:30 p.m. as she stood in the waist-deep water, wildlife officials said.

Later in the day, Wildlife officials trapped and killed the alligator, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The unidentified woman is expected to fully recover from her injuries.

The attack happened in the same area where Andrew Hudson, a 17-year-old Winter Springs boy, was bitten by an alligator three years ago.

Hudson, who suffered serious injuries on his head and back, shared his harrowing tale of his close encounter with the alligator to WFTV-9.

“He came up behind me and clamped. When he took me under, I felt him kind of right here, the soft part of his belly, and I started swinging and he let go.”

Hudson told the station the bite left him with 19 stitches and 12 staples.

The latest alligator attack comes just weeks after a 2-year-old boy, who was vacationing with his family, was dragged off by an alligator into the Seven Seas Lagoon at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, Lane Graves, was attacked while wading on a beach at the resort. Despite attempts by his parents to ward off the gator, the boy was lost. His body was discovered intact about 15 yards from the shore, six feet underwater.

This was not the first attack at a Disney resort. In October 1986, Paul Richard Santamaria, then 8, of Bristol, N.H., was attacked by an alligator while watching ducks waddling out of a small pond at Walt Disney World’s Fort Wilderness. He was bitten on his left leg, but his injuries were not serious enough to warrant surgery.

As reported by the Orlando Sentinel, 23 people have been killed by alligators in Florida since 1948, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Last year, James Okkerse, 61, was found dead floating in the swimming area of Blue Spring State Park, killed by a 12-foot alligator; and Rachael Lilienthal, a Spanish lecturer at Rollins College, survived an attack, but lost her arm to the gator.

Other casualties to gators in the past seem to almost have a Karmic twist.

In 2007, suspected car burglar Justo Antonio Padron, 36, ran from a casino in Miami-Dade County and jumped into a pond where a 9-foot-long alligator attacked and killed him.

One of the deadliest weeks for deaths attributed to alligator attacks came in May 2006, when three people were killed by alligators across the state. The victims included a jogger, who took a break from running and was attacked as she dangled her foot over a canal; a snorkeler in a Marion County spring; and a homeless woman trespassing in a Tampa Bay-area backyard.

One Kissimmee couple, who made the tragic decision to go skinny-dipping, had their romantic interlude interrupted by an alligator that clamped down on Deirdre Dozois’ leg.

[AP Photo/Jorge Saenz]

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