‘It was holding onto a part of the torso’: A 13-foot alligator 'humanely killed' in Florida
A 13-foot alligator was found in a canal in Florida with human remains in its mouth. The reptile had to be "humanely killed" by authorities later.
A 13-foot-long alligator was found in a canal in Largo, about 20 miles west of Tampa, with human remains in its mouth. The remains of the adult had been recovered and the 8.5-inch male reptile had to be pulled out of the water and “humanely killed,” said the Pinellas County Sheriff's Office.
On Friday afternoon, September 22, 2023, Jamarcus Ballard was passing by the canal when he saw the alligator and a corpse in the water.
"I threw a rock at the gator just to see if it was really a gator and like it pulled the body like it was holding on to the lower part of the torso, and pulled it under the water," he said in a statement to a TV affiliate of NBC News, Sky News' US partner network.
Jamarcus said he immediately began recording the sight on his phone and also called up the concerned authorities.
About the authorities' reaction to the information Jamarcus said, “They got like this stick thing and pulled the head out of the water and shot it. And once they wailed it all the way out, they stretched it out, measured it and told it was 13 feet long and then they shot it again.”
A video shared by Jamarcus shows an officer from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission measuring the reptile.
In an investigation, the body was identified as being Sabrina Peckham, a 41-year-old homeless woman.
Sabrina had been arrested on July 14 at 6:30 a.m. by the Pinellas County deputies for trespassing onto a county wetland just half a mile dead from where she was found, clutched in the beast's jaw.
This was not the first time Sabrina had been held for trespassing. The woman had a history of trespassing run-ins with the police since 2014, including multiple drug and theft convictions lodged against her.
According to the neighbourhood, alligators routinely wander in the area but the one killed on Friday was one of the biggest to be known of.
