A man on his way to a job interview made a gruesome discovery involving a 13-foot alligator and a deceased adult Friday near a waterway in Pinellas County, Florida.
Officials are investigating.
Officials with the Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) arrived at the scene in the Ridgecrest area just before 2:00 p.m. after someone reported seeing a body in an alligator’s jaws in the water, according to Fox 13.
Authorities killed the alligator and pulled it from the waterway while deputies with the PCSO Dive Team recovered remains of an adult person from the water.
An image shows the alligator lying next to what appears to be blood smeared on a patch of concrete:
10-foot alligator caught carrying lifeless Floridian down a canal https://t.co/ZwA41PM9Le pic.twitter.com/8wymqyDptG
— New York Post (@nypost) September 22, 2023
“Witnesses found this almost 14-foot gator with a body in its mouth,” a Fox 13 reporter said Friday. The outlet’s aerial video records authorities surrounding the alligator.
When he saw the alligator, the witness rushed over to a nearby fire station to get help.
Jamarcus Bullard said, “I was on my way to a job interview and I always look into the lake, you know, for fish and stuff, and I spotted a gator.”
“I noticed it had a body in its mouth, like a lower torso, so once I saw that I ran straight to the fire department and got them. They confirmed it was a body,” he added.
Now, it is up to the medical examiner to perform an autopsy and determine the not-yet-identified person’s manner and cause of death.
Meanwhile, neighbors are worried the area near the waterway could be dangerous, according to 10 Tampa Bay.
“It’s crazy. My kids walk by there all the time. So it’s really scary. Like I said, I’ve seen them, four- or five- feet gators, but nothing that big,” one woman told the outlet:
According to Fox 13, officials are investigating the incident but have not yet released additional information regarding the case.
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