Posted on 01/19/2008 11:13:59 AM PST by Mr. Brightside
S.F. Zoo mauling investigation winding down
Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, January 19, 2008
The police investigation into the tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo will soon be reclassified as "inactive" after a search failed to turn up evidence that the victims taunted the animal or committed other crimes, authorities said Friday.
Sources close to the case said the investigation into the Christmas Day attack could be shelved as soon as next week and will not be reopened unless new information comes to light. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak for the department.
On Wednesday, police investigators searched the car and the cell phones belonging to the two brothers who survived the attack that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. of San Jose. They recovered no direct evidence to support a theory that either Paul Dhaliwal, 19, or Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, of San Jose had taunted the Siberian tiger before it attacked.
Also, the zoo's operations director, Jesse Vargas, blocked police from talking to zoo authorities after initial interviews, citing attorneys' advice, police said in their search warrant affidavit.
A spokesman has said the zoo simply wants attorneys present when zoo officials are questioned.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Didn’t I just read a couple days ago, that one of them ADMITTED to taunting?
Can anybody get their stories straight about this?
January 18, 2008, 11:42 am
Taunting Evidence Intensifies the Tiger Case
By Mike Nizza
Was the tiger taunted? The San Francisco polices first answer was found in a court document obtained by The San Francisco Chronicle:
As a result of this investigation, (police believe) that the tiger may have been taunted/agitated by its eventual victims, [Inspector Valerie Matthews, the lead investigator in the case] wrote in the affidavit. Police believe that this factor contributed to the tiger escaping from its enclosure and attacking its victims, she said.
This behavior may be consistent with a tiger that has been agitated and/or taunted.
The evidence apparently includes statements made by Paul Dhaliwal, one of the three young men attacked by the tiger at the zoo on Christmas Day, to the effect that the trio Paul and his brother Kulbir and a friend, Carlos Sousa Jr. were standing on the railing and waving their hands and yelling at the tiger before the attack. The brothers suffered head wounds; Mr. Sousa was killed.
One part of that story was backed up by a shoe print found on the railing, according to the police report.
But the statements were not made by Paul Dhaliwal to the police. Rather, the Mr. Sousas father evidently told police that Paul made the statements in a conversation after the attack. Carlos Sousa Sr. also said that Paul denied other allegations, including claims that limbs were dangled over the railing, or that rocks or sticks were thrown at the tiger.
Marijuana and alcohol apparently were involved as well. According to the police account, Kulbir Dhaliwal told investigators that the three men smoked pot and drank vodka earlier that day; both substances were retrieved from the car and identified in toxicology tests.
While the lawyers representing the two young men wounded in the Christmas Day rampage have flatly denied wrongdoing of any sort on the mens part, San Francisco Zoo officials have insisted that something prompted our tiger to leap over the exhibit.
Last week, the investigation was described as inactive, and the week before, the worst-case scenario for the young men was said to be a misdemeanor charge. But the court documents specified that the police now suspect that an unspecified felony was committed.
Shepard Kopp, one of the lawyers hired by the Dhaliwals, said that he couldnt conceive of any possible felony that anyone would suspect these brothers of having committed, according to The San Jose Mercury News.
As the heat intensified, Mark Geragos, the more colorful of the lawyers representing the brothers, seemed to drop into the background, for the first time since taking the case. Though he appeared constantly as a vocal defender of the men in earlier news accounts about the case, the Chronicle wrote today that Mr. Geragos had not returned its call seeking comment
It all depends on the definition of “taunting.”
They admitted to yelling and waiving their hands from to top of a 3 foot fence.
The media has confused the issue by using the word “taunting” to include everything from making noises at the animals to shooting them with slingshots or poking them with sticks.
Police said all three young men had been drinking and smoked marijuana before going to the zoo. Cardoza, however, ridiculed the idea that their condition had anything to do with the attack.
"Come on, how many people go out there to the zoo a little stoned?" he said. "This is ridiculous. Is that a reason to dirty the kids up?"
Can't say I've EVER gone to the zoo stoned. Never occurred to me. Anyone else here?
You should add a link to that post.
“taunting” = “torture”
I get it now.
The fact is that the zoo’s wall was too low and was a danger to everybody.
Regardless if the victims were stoned or or not, the tiger should have not been able to escape.
taunting = torture
Yes. When the police use the word.
But when AP headline writers use the word, its meaning can also include yelling ROAR at the tiger, KAWing at the eagle and OOO-OOOing at the gorilla.
That was my understanding!
Re: No evidence of taunting
Umm, I think they admitted to such.
I don’t come to FR to get MISinformation.
They admitted to yelling, roaring and waiving their hands.
The police obviously don’t consider this “taunting” in the legal and criminal sense of the word.
The media has confused the issue by using the word very loosely.
It’s not right to taunt animal's, but I don’t see that (or the sobriety) to be relevant. It may be the “reason” the tiger was mad . . .but still, it was able to jump the enclosure! I honestly think the enclosure is the main issue here.
I agree.
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