The gorilla was acting as better parent.
From what I’ve read the mom was on her cell phone when this happened. Now I understand people get calls but don’t parents understand anymore how to tell a kid a firm “NO you may not go see the gorilla up close”?? These parents are either lazy, stupid or both.
The kid have to have been climbing up over the fence to see the gorillas and she must not have been trying hard enough to stop him.
She has four kids, one is an infant. Not sure if they were all there with her that day, but there was more than the gorilla kid with her. Supposedly he told her he wanted to go into the water. She told him no and the turned her attention away, maybe phone maybe other kids. He went over a concrete wall, across a bushy area, through a fence and over the edge of the exhibit. He was gone for more than a minute.
That exhibit has been there over 30 years with no breaches. Parental negligence definitely played a role.