Lethal App News » Gonzales

Destin Shark Attack Kills 14-Year-Old Girl

Posted: June 6th, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: sharks, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

This is a story from 2005.

DESTIN, FL – A 14-year-old Louisiana girl was killed Saturday in a shark attack in Destin near a Walton County campground on the Gulf of Mexico. The girl's identity was not released. But Walton County Sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Shank says the girl was from Gonzales, Louisiana.

Shank says two 14-year-old girls were swimming about 100 yards offshore when they noticed a dark shadow in the water. Shank says, “One of the swimmers was bitten. It was lower portions of her body.” Both girls swam to the shore where the girl that was attacked was treated. Shank says the girl was transported to the Sacred Heart Hospital in South Walton where she was pronounced dead.

About 21 miles of area beaches were closed to swimmers immediately afterward. They will be closed for the rest of the day.The attack happened near Camping on the Gulf Holiday Travel Park in Walton County. Patrick O'Neill, the campground's general manager, refused to comment. Mike McKee, front desk supervisor at the Hilton Sandestin Beach Resort and Spa, said this is the time of year when area hotels are booked to capacity.

Florida had the largest number of documented shark attacks worldwide in 2003 with 31.

via Destin Shark Attack Kills 14-Year-Old Girl.


Game warden attacked by gator in Texas

Posted: May 21st, 2010 | Author: | Filed under: alligators, wildlife | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

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WOODSBORO–A game warden is recovering after he was bitten by an alligator in Refugio County. The gator was in the middle of a road and the game warden was trying to capture it when the gator apparently decided it didn’t want to be captured.

The alligator attack happened about a month ago. The game warden has been rehabilitating ever since then. For the first time today, he went back to the scene of the gator attack.

This is the first time Pinky Gonzales returned back to Farm to Market Road 136 near Woodsboro since the alligator attack. It was a month ago and he was trying to remove the gator from the roadway.

Gonzales jumped on top of the alligator to tape his mouth, but he was on him for 15 seconds, a little too long to close his mouth. The gator bit him and wouldn’t let his hand go.

“I am going to trying to pull my hand out of his mouth and somehow almost in two, but I got my hand back,” said Gonzales, who has been a game warden for Texas Parks and Wildlife for 23 years.

After getting his hand out, Gonzales said he and the gator rolled and then the reptile was coming right at him, going for the kill.

“I remember seeing him come at me with his mouth wide open,” Gonzales said. “He was very aggressive and very angry. I am right handed and he grabbed a hold of my left hand where i can shoot him with my right hand.”

“He looked like he got beaten up pretty bad,” said Captain Henry Balderamas, a fellow game warden, who drove him to Victoria to get medical treatment. “He was very well bloodied. He still had all of his functions and was thinking clearly.”

He suffered severe nerve damage to his hand from the alligator attack. He fracture his cheek bone and lost a couple of teeth.

He won’t return back to work for another month, but this attack won’t stop him from doing his job he has loved for nearly a quarter of a century.

“I should have stuck with what I have been doing and not take the chance I took,” Gonzales said, talking about the mistake he made with the alligator. “I’ll continue answering these calls.”