Newly released law enforcement body camera footage shows the moments after a nearly 14-foot-long alligator killed a 41-year-old Florida woman in September.
The footage, obtained from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) by Fox 13, shows first responders arrive at a roadside canal in Largo, Florida, and fatally shoot the gator with a rifle.
A bystander, Jamarcus Bullard, was the first to discover the grim scene, alerting law enforcement when he saw a gator with what he believed were body parts in its mouth.
“I noticed it had a body in its mouth, like a lower torso, so once I saw that, I ran straight to the fire department and got them, they confirmed it was a body,” Bullard told the station of the incident at the time.
The victim was later identified as Sabrina Peckham, an unhoused woman who had been living at a makeshift campsite less than 50 feet away from the canal in Pinellas County. Her family had last seen her the day before the fatal encounter.
“Up over here is the camp where her ID was found,” an FWC officer can be heard saying on the footage as he inspects the trash-strewn campsite. “There doesn’t appear to be any signs of an alligator having come up in here.”
Officers hauled the gator out of the canal with ropes and chains and had to cut it open to retrieve some of Peckham’s remains.
The fatal encounter took place in McKay Creek, which connects Ridgecrest Lake and Taylor Lake.
At the time, the latter was drained as a part of a maintenance project.
In 2022, an alligator killed a man who was diving in Taylor Lake to retrieve a frisbee.
Fencing and signs now surround the area where Peckham was killed.
Lethal encounters between humans and alligators are rare. In Pinellas County, the reptiles have killed three people, including Peckham, since the 1970s, according to the FWC.