Taunting or not, tigers are tigers and will at any opportunity, bite, maul and kill humans.
The very idea that tigers have the mental faculties to remember exactly who taunted them is totally ridiculous - but we live in an age where people even believe in human induced global warming!
When the police show up at your front door and tell you that your child is dead, you ARE amazed and in shock. It doesn’t matter right then how he died, you are stunned and not thinking clearly. You won’t be thinking OR talking clearly for quite a while.
Cut the guy some slack.