The 11-foot alligator that was involved in the fatal death of Tommie Woodward, a Texas man who proclaimed “f*ck that alligator” moments before jumping into Burkhart’s Marina in Orange last week, has been put down, according to reports by the Beaumont Enterprise.
After the gator was killed and brought ashore last night, game wardens cut the animal open and found Woodward’s remains inside, confirming that it had, in fact, been the same gator that killed the 28-year-old man.
The man, who identified himself only as “Bear,” said he set a trap out of his boat with chicken as bait and caught the 400-pound reptile before he killed it with a shotgun. “He had to go,” Bear said. “That’s what happens when you kill someone.”
“Bear” and four other men were taking pictures of the alligator when game wardens arrived at the marina and the men left in a boat. The gator apparently was shot in the head and dragged from the water.
Men claim they killed gator in Friday's death http://t.co/GuGtL1Pfwu #SETXNews
— Beaumont Enterprise (@BmtEnterprise) July 6, 2015
Without being insensitive to the loss of human life, let’s remember that this was an alligator, and being an alligator was all this gator knew. And while the men who brought this great beast down may be fined up to $500 (because killing an alligator is a class C misdemeanor), I still feel like it deserved better than to meet its demise at the hands of a dude named “Bear” so he and his buddies could pose next to it with cans of Miller Lite. R.I.P. Gatey.
