Posted on 03/23/2004 11:33:53 AM PST by GulliverSwift
DALLAS - A zoo visitor saw two teen-age boys throwing rocks or ice at Jabari the gorilla shortly before he escaped from his exhibit Thursday and attacked three people at the Dallas Zoo, officials said Monday.
Mammal curator Ken Kaemmerer said the man told zoo officials that he warned the teens not to taunt the gorilla and was walking away from the exhibit when he heard someone yelling that the animal had escaped.
"He just ran," Kaemmerer said. "So he didn't see where the gorilla got out."
Officials said the information, which appears credible and came from a hot line created to collect information about the incident, is helpful because it shows what might have provoked Jabari's escape.
But it also left the zoo without a solid explanation of how the 13-year-old gorilla got past walls 12 to 16 feet high with moats and electrified wires. Jabari, who injured two women and a 3-year-old boy, was fatally shot by police after he charged at them.
"I'm thinking he just got angry enough at being harassed and he either made the climb of his life or a leap and got lucky," Kaemmerer said.
In a tape of one 911 call released by authorities Monday, a zoo secretary calmly tells the operator that police are needed. In another call, Dallas resident Enrique DeLeon urgently requests help.
"There's a gorilla loose, and it's going after people," he says frantically.
"Are you serious?" the dispatcher asks.
DeLeon responds, "I'm serious. I swear to God. I am not joking. There's people yelling. It's going after people. ... There's kids in here. Please. ... Please hurry up."
In an interview Monday, DeLeon said he and his family were near the meerkat exhibit when they heard banging and screams.
DeLeon said he first saw Cheryl Reichert, 39, trying to close a door to the aviary, but the gorilla forced it open and jumped on her. Then DeLeon saw Jabari go after 3-year-old Rivers Heard and his mother, Keisha Heard, 31.
"He picked him up like a rag doll and then bit him in the head," DeLeon said. "His mother started hitting the gorilla on the back, but that just made him more mad. He threw young Rivers and then turned around and attacked her."
DeLeon said he borrowed a utility knife from a young boy and began cutting the mesh netting of the aviary. The gorilla had left the area, and he told Heard to bring her son out that way.
"She was yelling, 'Hurry up! Hurry up!' But I told her she needed to be quiet or the gorilla would come back up," he said.
After they were pulled through the netting, a zoo employee armed with a fire extinguisher led them to a nearby barn, he said. DeLeon said he began administering first aid to Keisha Heard while DeLeon's wife, Andrea, attended to Rivers.
The paramedics arrived soon afterward, and then three gunshots were heard, DeLeon said.
"My wife and I tried to be calm through it, but once everything was over, we just started crying," he said. "It was just surreal, everything we saw."
Kaemmerer said he isn't sure whether the zoo will ever be able to figure out how Jabari escaped. He continued to urge witnesses to call the zoo's hot line at (214) 671-0888 and emphasized that officials are trying to figure out what happened, not assign blame.
"I would have hoped at this point either through the media or through the hot line we would have gotten something," he said. "What I'm afraid of is the people that saw this or caused this are afraid they're going to be liable."
Kaemmerer also responded to questions about why zoo officials with tranquilizer guns could not reach Jabari before he was shot by police armed with safari-style rifles that had been provided by the zoo.
At the time of the shooting, Kaemmerer said the zoo's immobilization team had not gone in to capture the gorilla because personnel were still focusing on the first phase of their emergency operation, which is securing zoogoers and evacuating the injured.
"The vet or immobilization team will come to our command post, but he doesn't go into action until after all public and staff members are safe and the injured people are removed," Kaemmerer said.
"Once we had gotten people out, then we would have gone into the phase of contain and capture," he said.
Kaemmerer said that ideally police and zoo officials would have coordinated their plans. But he said the police were probably responding to 911 calls about a raging gorilla.
"Unfortunately, the police encountered Jabari and he charged them, and they really had no choice," Kaemmerer said.
Zoo officials are awaiting the arrival of the Department of Agriculture's Animal Plant Health Inspection Service, which will conduct its own investigation of the incident, before putting some of the gorillas back on exhibit.
Kaemmerer said he hopes to reopen the north portion of the gorilla exhibit before the weekend and display two older gorillas, Jenny and Fubo. Jabari was in the south portion of the exhibit when he escaped.
Yeah, this is sick.
You make good points; and I am glad to hear they may be some other considerations here.
Thank you as well for some interesting background on that certain 'First Lady'. Makes her practice of politics all the more understandable!
"Another female chimp used to enjoy eating her own feces in front of the crowds, they finally got rid of her. (she went on to be 1st lady in the 90s)"
LOL! for sure.
Another point is, when he did escape he attacked innocent people. It was not their fault. And only slightly the teens fault.
The cage should have been secure. If one cant be built that will hold them maybe they should roam free in their natural habitat for their sake and ours.
I imagine its a worse punishment to be gawked at by thousands each year than teens throwing him a few new objects to play with.
Im not sure what im doing arguing on the gorilla thread,I just live here and my kids visit the Fort worth zoo alot.
If a wild animal escaped and harmed them, I would certainly blame the zoo who has the COMPLETE responsibility to protect their customers.
I do feel sorry for the gorilla who was being picked on. But it was an escape waiting to happen imo.
"Two gorillas?"
I find that odd.
You make some good points also, I mean no offence FRiend.
It could have been alot worse huh?
I hope the zoo will take all possible steps to protect the public. And that kids wont be bad anymore.
Like a poster above, I would rather them all be free and watch nature documentaries to get my foreign animal fix.
ROTFLOL! Even the gorillas in Texas don't take any sh**. The expressions on those kids faces must have been equally as priceless.
Jabari reminds of old Farmer Davidson, who chased us for miles after we pelted his truck with snowballs, shouting "When I catch you boys, I gonna kick yer ass 'til your nose bleeds!"
$5 gas might do the trick.
I predict the cages are truly being secured now. Thank goodness no one got killed.
It cant be easy running a zoo especially with the huge crowds Dallas gets,and no doubt if they knew they had a leaky cage they would have fixed it before the gorilla ever escaped.
A big just-got-home-from-work, Diet RC-spewing guffaw at your offhand remark!
I would clip her razor sharp claws if she didnt need them for self defense.
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