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

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    The authorities say that Timothy Schulz, 42, of Mulberry, Fla., swam across an alligator-filled lake before a violent encounter with deputies in the neighborhood.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.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Face to Face With an Alligator? Here’s What to Do

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      On May 6, an alligator thrashed and tipped over a couple’s canoe in Central Florida where it attacked a woman and killed her.The death on May 6 of a Florida woman who was attacked by an 11-foot alligator that tipped over her canoe served as a reminder that, while alligator attacks on humans are “extremely rare,” as a state wildlife official said, they do happen, sometimes with fatal results.“This serves as a somber reminder of the powerful wildlife that share our natural spaces,” said Roger Young, the executive director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.Florida had an average of eight unprovoked alligator bites a year over the 10-year period that ended in 2022, according to the commission. Many of them were serious enough to require medical attention.The commission has been urging people to exercise caution in or near the water during alligator mating season, which runs from early April to June. The risk of an attack is higher, it said, because alligators tend to be more aggressive, active and visible during this time.The agency and other wildlife commissions offered these tips for avoiding or staying safe around the reptiles, which can grow up to 15 feet long.Where are they?Alligators can be found from central Texas eastward to North Carolina, according to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      750-Pound Alligator Seized From Hamburg, N.Y., Home

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      The alligator, Albert Edward, had been with his owner for 34 years.The alligator’s name was Albert Edward.He was 11 feet long, 750 pounds heavy and 34 years old, and until this week, he lived in a pool house attached to his owner’s home in Hamburg, N.Y., about 13 miles south of Buffalo.But the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation removed Albert from his home on Wednesday after it determined that he was being kept there illegally, the department said in a Facebook post.The alligator’s owner had built an addition to his house where Albert lived in an in-ground swimming pool, according to the department. The agency also said that the owner had allowed people, including children, to be in the pool with Albert, who is blind in both eyes and has spinal injuries.It is illegal to own an alligator in New York unless you have a license, according to a statement from the department. But those licenses are only for “scientific, educational, exhibition, zoological or propagation purposes,” the department’s website said.“To be clear, even if the owner was appropriately licensed, public contact with the animal is prohibited and grounds for license revocation and relocation of the animal,” the department said in the statement.The agency said that Albert’s owner, Tony Cavallaro, had a license for the alligator, but it expired in 2021. In an interview, Mr. Cavallaro, 64, said that while visitors to his home did sometimes take pictures with Albert, they never swam with him or rode him. Instead, they would briefly get in the water for a quick photo with the animal, often when he was sleeping, Mr. Cavallaro said.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More