Man mocks gators and swims, becomes first Texas gator attack fatality in 200 yrs

By Patriot Outdoor News

After the Houston Chronicle dug into gator attack history, it found that the bayou attack marks the first one in almost 200 years, when a man was killed near the Trinity River in 1836.

A Texas man died after he mockingly took a late-night swim in an alligator-infested marina close to the Louisiana border. Against verbal warnings and signs that cautioned against swimming in the area, Tommie Woodward jumped into the water — and almost immediately started calling for help. An eyewitness who knew the man saw him dragged underwater a couple times before he disappeared altogether.

CBS news reported July 3 that the Orange County Sheriff’s Office were called to Burkart’s Marina early Friday morning after reports that 28-year-old Tommie Woodward and an unidentified woman went swimming in a bayou and had subsequently suffered being attacked by an alligator. Sheriff’s deputies and a Texas game warden found Woodward’s body roughly 200 yards away after about two hours of searching.

Although police originally thought the man was swimming with a woman, Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told KFDM-TV in Beaumont that the woman, who had been on a dock at the marina, only jumped into the water after the man screamed for …read more

Source:: Patriot Outdoor News