A 71-year-old man fishing in a central Florida pond was killed by an alligator on Friday, Oct. 16, officials said.
Steven Hamilton, 71, of Winter Garden, Florida was fishing on the shore of a pond in Dr. Bradford Memorial Park when the alligator bit him, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.
Hamilton suffered serious injuries and died at the scene, the commission said in a statement to USA TODAY.
The 11-foot, 8-inch alligator dragged Hamilton into the water and Winter Garden firefighters pulled his body from the water after arriving at the scene, Orlando-Daytona Beach NBC TV station WESH News 2 reported. The rescue crew had trouble getting the body because of alligator activity, the station reported.
A trapper responded to the park and removed the alligator, believed to have come from nearby Lake Apopka, police said. “Lake Apopka has tons of alligators in it, so that’s not uncommon to see alligators in this part of town at all,” Winter Garden Police Department Capt. Michael Mason told reporters in a press conference.
“Always be aware of your surroundings, always be safe. Local wildlife, respect it, keep your distance,” Mason said. “It looks like it’s docile, it looks like your Florida emblem, but it can be dangerous.”
An alligator moves through the water on January 20, 2022, in the Wakodahatchee Wetlands near Delray Beach. Alligators are intolerant of saltwater, and the rising saltwater levels in the Everglades may send them looking for habitats further north in Florida.
Victim is second to die in fatal Florida alligator attack since June
The Oct. 16 attack is the second fatal alligator attack in central Florida since June 28. That’s when Brittany Clark, 31, of Orlando died from injuries suffered in an alligator attack on the Econlockhatchee River, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported.
In that attack, which happened near the Barr Street Trailhead in Oviedo, northeast of Orlando, Clark was kneeling in about 3 feet of water when the alligator attacked. Her boyfriend was able to get her out of the alligator’s mouth, but one arm was bitten off and the other severely injured.
Clark died on the way to the hospital, officials said. A 13-foot alligator was later captured and killed at the site of the incident and another alligator measuring 12½ feet long was captured and killed about a half-mile from where the attack occurred.
Florida also had two fatal alligator attacks in 2025; overall, the state had 13 attacks, eight were major and five were minor, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission. Still, alligator attacks remain fairly rare, even though the state is home to more than 1 million of the animals.
In a typical year, Florida reports about a dozen alligator attacks on humans. However, in 2023 there were 23 attacks, two of where were fatal, according to the FWC data.
Contributing: Frank Fernandez, Daytona Beach News-Journal
Mike Snider is a national trending news reporter for USA TODAY. You can follow him on Threads, Bluesky, X and email him at mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.bsky.social & @mikesnider & msnider@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Florida man, 71, fishing in pond dies in alligator attack
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