A 71-year-old Florida man died after an alligator attacked him while fishing near Orlando, and wildlife officers later trapped and killed a roughly 12-foot gator.
NBC News reported that Steven Hamilton was fishing at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park in Winter Garden when an alligator bit him. Winter Garden sits about 15 miles west of Orlando.
Authorities said Friday that Hamilton was pronounced dead at the scene. The Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Winter Garden Police Department both confirmed the fatal attack.
Emergency crews at the park relayed radio traffic that witnesses had seen someone possibly grabbed by an alligator and pulled into the water. That account lined up with the grim outcome officials later described.
Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission authorities trapped and killed a roughly 12-foot-long alligator after the attack. Winter Garden police said the same in their own statement on the incident.
FWC stressed that deadly encounters remain uncommon even in a state packed with gators.
The commission said “serious injuries caused by alligators are rare in Florida.”
Rare does not mean harmless. A large reptile in a public park still ends lives when people get too close to the water’s edge.
Winter Garden police Capt. Michael Mason told reporters the public needs to treat local wildlife as a real threat, not a postcard.
"Always be aware of your surroundings. Always be safe."
Mason went further on why casual confidence around Florida’s signature animal is a mistake.
"Local wildlife, respect it, keep your distance. It looks like it’s docile, it looks like your Florida emblem, but it can be dangerous."
He also asked anyone who saw the attack to contact authorities. Witness details beyond the radio traffic reports were not laid out in full.
This was not the region’s only recent fatal gator incident. In June, a 31-year-old woman died after an alligator bit off one of her arms and mauled the other at nearby Little Big Econ State Forest.
Two deaths in the same broader stretch of Central Florida drive home a basic point officials keep repeating: the animals can look calm right up until they strike.
Hamilton had gone fishing at a city park. He did not walk away. Responders pronounced him dead where he was found, and the roughly 12-foot alligator was taken out of the population afterward.
No charging documents, case numbers, or full medical cause-of-death findings beyond the on-scene pronouncement appeared in the initial accounts. What is clear is the sequence officials described: a bite during fishing, witness reports of a person pulled into the water, a man dead at the park, and a large alligator trapped and killed.
Florida markets its wildlife as part of the brand. Capt. Mason’s warning cuts against the soft image. Distance and awareness are not optional when a 12-foot predator shares the shoreline.
Common sense still matters at the water’s edge, because the gator does not care about anyone’s plans for a quiet afternoon of fishing.
