Trail of blood apparently led escaped tiger to victims

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Dec 27, 2007 | Kevin Fagen, Jaxon Van Derbeken, Steve Rubenstein, Cecila Vega

[fignewton]

San Francisco police are investigating the possibility that one of the victims in the fatal tiger mauling on Christmas Day climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public, sources close to the investigation said Wednesday.

[Badeye]

Its going to be interesting to watch how what is finally discovered about this incident with what the Zoo initially claimed.

[umgud]

Gotta believe video footage will help figure this out. Cops probably appealing to visitors to see what’s in their viewfinders. Probably some park cams running too.

[Badeye]

Yep.

Where were the Zoo keepers? Where was the Zoo’s security staff?

Those two questions must be answered, the sooner the better.

[7thson]

The main question to ask is why this tiger was not put down a year ago when it nearly tore the arm off a zoo keeper?

[Badeye]

Depends on the specifics. I’ve heard the Zoo keeper violated SOP when the incident occured.

[Rb ver. 2.0]

I read an earlier article which stated there is no Zoo video surveillance.

[the_devils_advocate_666]

Mess with the bull and you get the horns.

[7thson]

Doesn’t matter. SOP usually means when an animal attacks a human, the animal gets put down.

[davisfh]

"Gotta believe video footage will help figure this out. Cops probably appealing to visitors to see what’s in their viewfinders. Probably some park cams running too."

We may never see the park video (assuming there is any). It will fall to the park visitors to make their videos available.

[Krankor]

It's beginning to look a lot like the zoo's only fault is they didn't have an additional moat and a 20 foot wall- to keep people out. These three guys drove 50 miles on Christmas day to go to the zoo? The dead kid's parents say they don't know the two brothers. According to one report, the two brothers were initially uncooperative with the cops. Could this have been a gang initiation?

[Badeye]

Hmmm, I don’t know the answer, but thanks for the details. You might be right about it being a gang related incident.

[SC Swamp Fox]

However, police Sgt. Neville Gittens maintained that there was no reason to think that the victims were taunting the tiger.

Why would the police make a statement like this? Couldn't he just say "The incident is still under investigation."? Does Sgt. Gittens really think there is no reason to believe the victims were taunting the cat? If he does, then he should find another job. There are several reasons to think they were and it should be one of the things the investigators should be considering.

[OKSooner]

"The paramedics and driver were soon joined by the four police officers, who distracted the tiger with the red lights of their two patrol cars before shooting her to death with their .40-caliber handguns."

Kudos to those cops. They're a good example, in contrast to the cops at say, Virginia Tech.

After seeing the news coverage of this I assumed that they were using shotguns, hopefully with slugs.

[Loud Mime]

I’ve seen the gang bangers at various parks around here. When this possibility is brought up it actually makes sense.

[Badeye]

Going up against one of the most prolific predators on the planet with handguns makes them Hero’s in my book.

[montag813]

The main question to ask is why this tiger was not put down a year ago when it nearly tore the arm off a zoo keeper?

Because it's a TIGER! What do we expect a toger to do, roll over and do tricks? They are master killers and carnivores.

[Badeye]

Yep. I hadn’t considered it til the post.

[Mr. Brightside]

Police sources said a footprint had been found on a metal fence, suggesting that someone had climbed the fence to get closer to the big cats. Authorities were looking into whether the tiger escaped by latching on to a leg or body part.

A 500 pound tiger can pull itself over a wall by latching itself onto the leg of a 17 year old boy?