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S.F. police investigation into tiger attack "suspended" due to lack of evidence of taunting
San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/29/08

Posted on 01/29/2008 6:55:18 PM PST by Mr. Brightside

S.F. police investigation into tiger attack "suspended" due to lack of evidence of taunting

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, January 29, 2008

(01-29) 16:16 PST San Francisco - --

The San Francisco police investigation into the tiger attack at the San Francisco Zoo has been "suspended" after a search earlier this month failed to turn up evidence that the victims taunted the animal or committed other crimes, police said Tuesday.

The case is being shelved "pending new witnesses being interviewed and/or new evidence being produced," according to a Police Department statement about the Christmas Day mauling that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. of San Jose.

On Jan. 16, police investigators searched the car and the cell phones belonging to the two San Jose brothers who survived the attack. They recovered no direct evidence to support a theory that either Paul Dhaliwal, 19, or Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, had taunted the Siberian tiger before it escaped its exhibit and attacked.

Police found in the car a partly filled bottle of vodka and a kit commonly used to defeat drug testing, including a vial of unisex synthetic urine.

According to the search warrant statement, Paul Dhaliwal reportedly told Sousa's father that before the attack the three young men yelled and waved at the tiger while standing atop the 3-foot-high railing of the tiger's exhibit.

However, Paul Dhaliwal denied throwing anything into the enclosure or otherwise antagonizing the animal, and police were unable to find any evidence to contradict that account.

(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...


TOPICS:
KEYWORDS: maul; sf; tiger; zoo
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1 posted on 01/29/2008 6:55:21 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Mr. Brightside

Amazing! Only in San Francisco. (You’d have to know a little about the city’s police chief.)


2 posted on 01/29/2008 6:57:23 PM PST by Revolting cat! (We all need someone we can bleed on...)
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To: Mr. Brightside
Still, there's the witness (we call her the "lion witness") who said it was three boys, two of whom were wounded, one killed, and presumably the fourth hauled off into the bushes and maybe eaten!

Get some warm weather into that place and we'll find the remains (if any).

Otherwise the only thing we know for sure is that a tiger who could leap 20 feet straight up managed to get out of its 12.5 foot compound and run around the zoo nekkid and free.

3 posted on 01/29/2008 6:59:39 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Revolting cat!

Waiting now for zoo officials to start apologizing.

/sarc


4 posted on 01/29/2008 6:59:52 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Mr. Brightside
Still, there's the witness (we call her the "lion witness") who said it was three boys, two of whom were wounded, one killed, and presumably the fourth hauled off into the bushes and maybe eaten!

Get some warm weather into that place and we'll find the remains (if any).

Otherwise the only thing we know for sure is that a tiger who could leap 20 feet straight up managed to get out of its 12.5 foot compound and run around the zoo nekkid and free.

5 posted on 01/29/2008 7:00:01 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Mr. Brightside

I’d like to be where Geragos, Esq. is tonight. Dude’s buying rounds all around!


6 posted on 01/29/2008 7:02:18 PM PST by Revolting cat! (We all need someone we can bleed on...)
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To: muawiyah

I can’t believe you are still sticking to the 4th victim was eaten story.


7 posted on 01/29/2008 7:03:23 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Revolting cat!

The zoo has been very successful in their deceitful PR campaign to blame the victims.

Things will not go so smoothly for them under cross examination in the courtroom.


8 posted on 01/29/2008 7:05:27 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Mr. Brightside

I thought that one of the boys admitted that they were standing on the rail and waving their arms at the tiger then it jumped through the bushes...


9 posted on 01/29/2008 7:09:00 PM PST by NCjim (The more I use Windows, the more I love UNIX)
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To: NCjim

Waiving arms, roaring, and saying na-na-na to the tiger is not taunting.


10 posted on 01/29/2008 7:11:02 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Mr. Brightside
As long as there's that "Lion Witness" I'm gonna' work it ~ just reminds everyone that there's a real problem here.

The cops that shot the groom up in New York City just over 2 years ago had the very same problem ~ the perp who got away.

They're being prosecuted.

11 posted on 01/29/2008 7:11:44 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: NCjim
That's a "somebody said that somebody said that" situations.

None of us here, nor in the print news media has gotten a word out of the young men.

12 posted on 01/29/2008 7:12:38 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Mr. Brightside

Mooning the tiger with a big fat one might rather be called “tempting the tiger” eh.


13 posted on 01/29/2008 7:13:20 PM PST by muawiyah
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To: Mr. Brightside
What IS taunting, then? From dictionary.com:

taunt

–verb (used with object)
1. to reproach in a sarcastic, insulting, or jeering manner; mock.
2. to provoke by taunts; twit.

I guess as long as they were not sarcastic or insulting they're OK. Would the tiger understand sarcasm or insults?

14 posted on 01/29/2008 7:18:17 PM PST by NCjim (The more I use Windows, the more I love UNIX)
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To: Mr. Brightside

Those two young men know what they did and will get to live with their memories, even if they escape responsibility for the death of their friend...


15 posted on 01/29/2008 7:18:23 PM PST by rockrr (Global warming is to science what Islam is to religion)
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To: NCjim

The press has been very sloppy in its use of the word “taunting.”

First they spread rumors about “taunting” with rocks and slingshots (which is illegal) and which the police later said were totally false.

Then the MSM continued to use the word “taunting” to discribe waiving hands and making animal noises, something that 20 percent of all zoo visitors do every day and is not illegal.


16 posted on 01/29/2008 7:20:55 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: Revolting cat!

(sarcasm) I’m so impressed with police chief Heather Fong.Aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!


17 posted on 01/29/2008 7:23:02 PM PST by sheik yerbouty ( Make America and the world a jihad free zone!)
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To: muawiyah
From CNN:

Police: Tiger attack victim was drinking, admitted taunting

SAN FRANCISCO, California (AP) -- One of the three victims of a San Francisco Zoo tiger attack was intoxicated and admitted to yelling and waving at the animal while standing atop the railing of the big cat enclosure, police say in court documents.

Paul Dhaliwal, 19, told the father of Carlos Sousa Jr., 17, who was killed, that the three yelled and waved at the tiger but insisted they never threw anything into its pen to provoke the cat, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained Thursday by the San Francisco Chronicle.

18 posted on 01/29/2008 7:23:24 PM PST by NCjim (The more I use Windows, the more I love UNIX)
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To: NCjim

S.F. Zoo mauling investigation winding down (No evidence of taunting)

On General/Chat 01/19/2008 2:13:59 PM EST · 15 replies

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 1/19/08

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.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/1956370/posts


19 posted on 01/29/2008 7:25:35 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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To: NCjim

... which is why we should not base our opinions on the headlines we read in the paper.


20 posted on 01/29/2008 7:27:17 PM PST by Mr. Brightside
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