ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — A Florida teenager who climbed into a tree to escape an aggressive alligator while swimming in a creek was rescued by a deputy who shot the giant reptile with a semiautomatic rifle.
Jordan Broderick had been hanging in the tree for a half-hour on Friday when Deputy Mitch Blackmon arrived at the creek in Astor, Florida. The 15-year-old girl climbed into the tree after encountering the gator while rafting.
According to an incident report, the alligator was hissing and wasn't scared off by the deputy's presence.
Blackmon says in the report that the almost 11-foot-long (3-meter-long) gator started moving toward him so he fired at it with the rifle.
Lake County Sheriff's Office spokesman Sgt. Fred Jones says the gator sank back into the water and didn't re-emerge.