Alligator attack: Man Ignores Sign Killed By Gator
According to media reports Saturday, the 28-year-old man ignored warning signs posted along the edge of the water, the reports said.
Tommie Woodward had been swimming in Burkart’s Marina in the southeast Texas town of Orange, near the border with Louisiana, around 2:30 a.m. on Friday.
He was attacked immediately after jumping into the water, KFDM television in Beaumont, Texas reported, quoting eye-witnesses.
A female companion who had gone swimming with him tried to pull the screaming man out of the water.
She was uninjured.
Orange County Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told KFDM.
“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,”
A game warden in a boat found Woodward’s body around 4:30 a.m. about 200 yards from the attack site. His left arm had been bitten and there were puncture wounds on his chest, according to the Huff Post.
According to Newsweek, this marks the first fatal alligator accident in Texas State Game Warden Mike Boone could recall.
Photo By facebook Tommie Woodward was dragged underwater.
This gator attack marks the first one in two centuries. The area is marked by signs reading ‘No Swimming: Alligators, reports The Houston Chronicle.
Meanwhile, another alligator attack had much happier ending this week. A father jumped into an alligator-infested lake to save his 13-year-old son at Cedar Hill Park in Wallisville.
“When it took him under then I knew and then that was it,” said James Hurley, who can’t shake the memories of what happened when he and his family went swimming in Lake Charlotte June 28.
Kaleb Hurley, 13, was in the jaws of a 10-foot-long alligator. His mom jumped in, and then his father Jamie and his grandfather.
“The alligator shook him away from her,” Ford tells us. “By that time, Jamie and I were already there and we took the boy away from the alligator.”
Both are expected to make a full recovery
What a sad way to celebrate the 4th for his family, however given that he is from Texas, I am not surprised
the sign read, “No swimming alligator”. One interpretation of that could be, especially if you are from Texas, there are alligators here that don’t know how to swim. Ergo, not a problem. Duh!!
Or you know, no alligators are allowed to swim here. That’s another reasonable conclusion one could draw from that sign. He must have thought since alligators were banned, it was safe.
His poor girlfriend. She was sweet to jump in after him like that. I can’t promise I’d do the same thing.