This week in the Kansas City Star an article was published about a gator attacking a man that had been smoking crack. According to the article police could here the man crying out “`I have two broken arms, and an alligator’s got me pinned. I can’t move. Please help me.’”
Police found the man was naked, slumped over, caught in the jaws of a huge alligator amidst thick cattails in bloodied water. The gator nearly severed the man’s left arm, broke his right arm, and took significant bites out of his buttocks and the back of a thigh. According to the man he had been smoking crack cocaine at the adjacent park, had fallen asleep on the beach and the gator dragged him into the water.
This article caused me to wonder how many other criminals met or almost met their end at the hands of a civic minded animal. This led me to the story:
Gorilla Shot as Fugitive Seeks Refuge at the Zoo
This story is worth quoting in its entirety.
A MOUNTAIN gorilla was shot and wounded yesterday as he grappled with a fleeing armed robber who jumped into his zoo enclosure.
The 28st 4lb primate, called Max, had emergency surgery for wounds to his neck and shoulder after the shoot-out between the suspect and the pursuing police and zoo guards. Max was back in his enclosure last night, “not in the best of moods but recovering well”, according to a spokesman for Johannesburg Zoo. “It was a case of ‘You ought to see the other guys’,” said the spokesman. “Max mauled the suspect who shot him, and bit and mauled two policemen who were chasing him. He was very angry.”
The incident began when a raider was surprised in the garage of a home in the Saxonwold district next to the zoo. The robber fled into the zoo grounds, followed by a police reaction unit. He ran to a viewing platform next to the gorilla enclosure and, as the police closed in, jumped down into the caged area where Max was paying court to his new companion, Lisa, another mountain gorilla.
“The suspect ducked inside the gorilla’s night room and came face to face with Max,” said Jaqui Thompson, the zoo spokesman. “It’s difficult to say who was the more surprised but Max was feeling quite protective and grabbed the man, who shot him three times.” The police also jumped into the enclosure. A gunfight ensued in which the robber was shot in the groin. Max, by now enraged, bit Constable Robert Tshabalala on his arm and buttocks, broke the arm of Sgt Rassie Rassenele and caused Constable Amos Simelane to break his ankle as he scrambled clear.
Zoo officials shot a tranquilliser dart into Max. The gorilla was taken to a nearby clinic and underwent emergency surgery. “He is recovering remarkably well, despite having one of the bullets still in his body,” said Miss Thompson. “He’ll be fine but a little confused by this dreadful human behaviour.”
The injured policemen were treated at the same clinic. A police spokesman said they would “carry no grudge against Max”. The robbery suspect, recovering from a serious gunshot wound and several injuries caused by Max, faces charges of malicious damage to property, pointing a firearm at police and cruelty to animals.
When the accused Isaac Mofokeng went on trial this account of the robbers encounter with the gorilla was published in the Weekly Telegraph on February 26, 1999.
The man who shot and wounded Max, the South African gorilla who has become a legend, described to a court yesterday how he fought for his life with the animal after jumping into its pen at Johannesburg Zoo.
Isaac Mofokeng, who jumped into Max’s enclosure while running away from police officers, said: “I thought my last day had come. The first thing the gorilla did was rip my jeans and bite me on the buttocks.” He told the Johannesburg magistrate: “He slammed me against the wall until I became semi-conscious. I thought it would be better to kill myself than be torn apart by the gorilla. At one stage, I put the gun to my own head and thought of pulling the trigger.” Instead, Mofokeng shot Max. He said: “It was not malicious. I was fighting for my life.” Mofokeng has pleaded not guilty to robbery, rape, house-breaking, escaping from police custody and “malicious damage to property” - the charge relating to the shooting of Max. Earlier, the police officers who had chased Mofokeng told how they had been attacked by Max as they tried to arrest the gunman. At one stage, the wounded and bleeding gorilla had a policeman under each arm.
Sgt Andries Rasimela said Max had bitten him and punched him. He saw his colleague, Constable Robert Shabalala being squeezed between the gorilla’s legs.
Mofokeng said the incident arose from a “misunderstanding” when he went to a house to show the owner a gun he had found. He said: “They thought I was there to rob them so I ran into the zoo and jumped over this wall thinking I would be safe. I did not know it was the gorilla pen.”
Max underwent surgery and recovered to be proclaimed a “national hero”. Donations for his welfare came from all over the world.
The result of it all as published in the Telegraph was that the man was sentenced to 40 years in jail when he was convicted of rape, burglary, robbery and malicious injury to the animal.
Judges Killer Eaten by Crocodile
As was reported by Yahoo, a man accused of killing a judge broke out of jail and was aiming to re-enter Panama through the dense jungle that divides Panama and Costa Rica. The man was eaten alive by the crocodile as he tried to swim across the River Terraba in southern Costa Rica.
Tigers Maul S.African Robber After Botched Heist
In 2002 attack.igorilla.com posted an entry from 2002. The story was that
a thief escaping from a botched robbery at a game sanctuary near Johannesburg made a fatal mistake when he climbed a high fence and found himself in the tigers’ den, police said Monday.”They grabbed him and first played with him. He died of a broken neck and a fractured skull,” police spokeswoman Milica Bezuidenhout told Reuters. The body was removed after the tigers, a male and a female, had been sedated, she said.The 28-year-old victim, a South African, and an accomplice had held up the gate guard at the Rhino and Lion Reserve at Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg, Saturday, but fled when staff and visitors became suspicious and chased them.The accomplice and the driver of the getaway car were arrested and were to appear in court later Monday, Bezuidenhout said.
Finally, from SABC News in 2005
Mystery Fading Around Dead Man in Tiger Den
The mystery is waning around the case of a man found dead in a tiger enclosure at the Bloemfontein Zoo on Sunday morning. Police say the man could have been a suspect in a robbery.Visitors to the Bloemfontein Zoo on Sunday saw more than they had bargained for. The man was found dead in the tiger’s enclosure, with bite marks at the back of his neck and all his clothes torn off. The tigers had dragged him through the water. Nature conservation officials said the Bengal tigers had been fed on Saturday afternoon and were therefore not hungry at the time the man is believed to have entered their den. Police are retracing the events that led up to the attack. “The man was involved in a robbery and was chased by security guards. He had nowhere to go so he jumped over the zoo fence,” says Elsa Gerber, a police spokesperson.A postmortem has been conducted and police are still waiting for a final report on the cause of death. The man was aged between 30 and 35 years.
