There’s no proof the animal would have killed him. These things have happened before with neither kid or animal killed. They had other ways, they ignored them all, they killed the animal purely out of their own gross incompetence.
Are you serious? Do you wait until the gorilla kills him or do you try to reason with a gorilla to give up the kid? I don't understand people like you. A child was in danger. A HUGE GORILLA was dragging him around and tossing him around like a rag doll. And you want to wait to see IF the gorilla would have killed him??? The KID is alive for CERTAIN because of the actions they took.