Bitten by Alligator, Man Is Killed After Charging at Deputies, Sheriff Says

Early on Memorial Day, a Florida man was bitten by an alligator as he swam across a lake. Bleeding from a bite to his right arm but undeterred, he climbed out, grabbed a pair of garden shears and walked into a gated neighborhood, alarming residents, according to local authorities.

Within minutes, the man, Timothy Schulz, 42, of Mulberry, Fla., was dead — shot by sheriff’s deputies after, they say, he charged at them with the shears, failed to be subdued by a stun gun and tried to grab either a shotgun or rifle from their cruiser.

“The fact that he was bitten by an alligator significantly and continued on his rampage was shocking,” the Polk County sheriff, Grady Judd, said at a news conference on Monday. “This is just crazy stuff. You know it’s got to be true. You can’t make it up.”

In fact, Mr. Schulz had started acting strangely at least two hours before the fatal encounter in Lakeland, Fla., according to the sheriff’s office, which pieced together the events leading up to his death using 911 calls and witness statements from residents of the neighborhood who tried to help Mr. Schulz in his final moments. Sheriff Judd also said that Mr. Schulz had a lengthy criminal history, which he described as “meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest.”

The events on Monday began before 6 a.m., when an employee at RaceTrac gas station off Highway 37 called the sheriff’s office to report a man inside who was acting bizarre — shaking and asking to call his son, Sheriff Judd said.

Deputies arrived within three minutes and searched the premises until about 6:39 a.m., but the man, later identified as Mr. Schulz, had vanished, the sheriff said.