Eyewitness Says Gorilla Banged Child Against Wall; Zoo ‘Had No Other Choice’ But to Shoot Him

The eyewitness who recorded the viral video of Harambe the gorilla’s interaction with the 3-year-old boy who fell into his enclosure defended the Cincinnati Zoo’s decision to shoot the animal to save the child.

Kim O’Connor told Cincinnati’s WCPO that the footage she recorded doesn’t even show the worst parts of the 400-pound gorilla’s handling of the boy, which included at one point banging him against a wall.

O’Connor said, “The horrific part, worse than what my video captures happened on the cement part of that exhibit, and I didn’t capture that video. I would have never captured that video.”

“Taking that into consideration and not the boat and the water, they had no other choice,” she added.

O’Connor came forward with her eyewitness account in order to challenge those who claim the gorilla was “protecting” the child.

“I was hoping that people would see that contrary to early reports that led the world to believe that he had not engaged with the gorilla, I needed them to understand there was an engagement,” she explained.

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