wanna mess with a gator?
#1
11-14-2007, 09:08 AM
wanna mess with a gator?
ADAM H. BEASLEY AND JENNIFER LEBOVICH
Shortly after dark Thursday, a would-be thief jumped into a lake alongside the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center to escape arrest.
He ended up dead -- apparently in the clenches of an alligator.
The rest of the details are as murky as the swamp water in the Everglades.
The Miccosukee Tribe, the governing body of the land, is not compelled by law to make its records public. On Tuesday, it would not release the dead man's identity or that of another man who was arrested.
The tribe says both men were trying to break into a car in the West Miami-Dade casino's parking lot when police arrived.
One surrendered to police; the other fled when officers arrived -- and ended up at the bottom of the lake.
Divers found the body in their third search of the lake Friday afternoon.
The body had alligator teeth marks on the upper torso, according to a spokesman for the Miccosukee Tribe.
The state attorney's office will determine what charges the surviving suspect could face, said Dexter Lehtinen, an attorney for the tribe.
Lehtinen said the two men were not members of the Miccosukee Tribe.
Despite the bite marks on the body, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office has not determined a cause of death.
However, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission suspects an alligator may have been responsible for the attack, said Officer Jorge Pino.
Two alligators from the lake were trapped and killed said Brian Wood, owner of All American Gator Products in Pembroke Park.
Wood said he got both of the gators from a trapper. One is about 7 ½ feet, the other 9 feet 3 inches with a 'nasty' temper. Wood said the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called and told him not to skin the larger gator.
He's keeping it in a cooler until the medical examiner can check the size of the gator's bite marks and check for any skin or hair caught in the gator's teeth. That is scheduled for Wednesday, Wood said.
Gators involved in attacks on people are buried or incinerated, Wood said.
Alligators are far more docile during the day, but at night they go looking for food.
'A gator that size would see a grown man as prey,' said Pino, the spokesman for Fish and Wildlife. ``We need to coexist with the wildlife. It's best not to go into a canal or a lake for an evening.'
Still, it's quite uncommon for an alligator to attack a person.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website, there were just 242 unprovoked alligator attacks on humans -- 15 fatal -- between 1948 and 2004.
The Miccosukees did not publicly acknowledge the death until Tuesday.
When it comes to releasing information to the public -- or even state and federal authorities -- what happens on the Miccosukee Reservation generally stays on the reservation.
In 2000, the state attorney's office fought the tribe over subpoenas the prosecutors wanted to serve in the case against Kirk Douglas Billie, a Miccosukee man the state said drowned his two young sons to spite his wife three years earlier.
Tribal leaders decided to 'forgive' Billie, calling the boys' death an accident. The leaders also denounced efforts to prosecute Billie as ``white man's justice.'
A Miami federal judge upheld the Miccosukees' right to keep subpoena servers off the reservation.
Despite that ruling, Billie was ultimately convicted -- twice -- by Miami-Dade juries. His first life sentence was overturned on appeal. But in 2005, a jury convicted him on two counts of second-degree murder.
Shortly after dark Thursday, a would-be thief jumped into a lake alongside the Miccosukee Resort and Convention Center to escape arrest.
He ended up dead -- apparently in the clenches of an alligator.
The rest of the details are as murky as the swamp water in the Everglades.
The Miccosukee Tribe, the governing body of the land, is not compelled by law to make its records public. On Tuesday, it would not release the dead man's identity or that of another man who was arrested.
The tribe says both men were trying to break into a car in the West Miami-Dade casino's parking lot when police arrived.
One surrendered to police; the other fled when officers arrived -- and ended up at the bottom of the lake.
Divers found the body in their third search of the lake Friday afternoon.
The body had alligator teeth marks on the upper torso, according to a spokesman for the Miccosukee Tribe.
The state attorney's office will determine what charges the surviving suspect could face, said Dexter Lehtinen, an attorney for the tribe.
Lehtinen said the two men were not members of the Miccosukee Tribe.
Despite the bite marks on the body, the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's office has not determined a cause of death.
However, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission suspects an alligator may have been responsible for the attack, said Officer Jorge Pino.
Two alligators from the lake were trapped and killed said Brian Wood, owner of All American Gator Products in Pembroke Park.
Wood said he got both of the gators from a trapper. One is about 7 ½ feet, the other 9 feet 3 inches with a 'nasty' temper. Wood said the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission called and told him not to skin the larger gator.
He's keeping it in a cooler until the medical examiner can check the size of the gator's bite marks and check for any skin or hair caught in the gator's teeth. That is scheduled for Wednesday, Wood said.
Gators involved in attacks on people are buried or incinerated, Wood said.
Alligators are far more docile during the day, but at night they go looking for food.
'A gator that size would see a grown man as prey,' said Pino, the spokesman for Fish and Wildlife. ``We need to coexist with the wildlife. It's best not to go into a canal or a lake for an evening.'
Still, it's quite uncommon for an alligator to attack a person.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission website, there were just 242 unprovoked alligator attacks on humans -- 15 fatal -- between 1948 and 2004.
The Miccosukees did not publicly acknowledge the death until Tuesday.
When it comes to releasing information to the public -- or even state and federal authorities -- what happens on the Miccosukee Reservation generally stays on the reservation.
In 2000, the state attorney's office fought the tribe over subpoenas the prosecutors wanted to serve in the case against Kirk Douglas Billie, a Miccosukee man the state said drowned his two young sons to spite his wife three years earlier.
Tribal leaders decided to 'forgive' Billie, calling the boys' death an accident. The leaders also denounced efforts to prosecute Billie as ``white man's justice.'
A Miami federal judge upheld the Miccosukees' right to keep subpoena servers off the reservation.
Despite that ruling, Billie was ultimately convicted -- twice -- by Miami-Dade juries. His first life sentence was overturned on appeal. But in 2005, a jury convicted him on two counts of second-degree murder.
#2
11-14-2007, 10:52 PM
RE: wanna mess with a gator?
ORIGINAL: G.A.R.Y.
The Miccosukees did not publicly acknowledge the death until Tuesday.
When it comes to releasing information to the public -- or even state and federal authorities -- what happens on the Miccosukee Reservation generally stays on the reservation.
The Miccosukees did not publicly acknowledge the death until Tuesday.
When it comes to releasing information to the public -- or even state and federal authorities -- what happens on the Miccosukee Reservation generally stays on the reservation.
#3
11-15-2007, 01:18 AM
RE: wanna mess with a gator?
That was a fitting demise for a thief. One that I have been wanting to try if I ever catch the SOB's would be to strip him naked and toss him into a big patch of blackberry bushes. Do you really think he would want to steal or break into your car again?????
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