Family of U.S. boy killed by alligator 'overwhelmed' by support

The parents of a 2-year-old boy snatched away and drowned by an alligator in Florida have been "overwhelmed with the support and love" that have poured in since the tragedy captured national attention, the family said in a statement on Saturday.

The alligator grabbed the boy at the water's edge on Tuesday night while his family, on vacation from Nebraska, relaxed on the shore nearby. The parents tried to save the child but were unable to free him from the alligator's grip.

"Melissa and I continue to deal with the loss of our beloved boy, Lane, and are overwhelmed with the support and love we have received from family and friends in our community as well as from around the country," father Matt Graves said in the statement issued by their church in Elkhorn, Nebraska.

"We understand the public's interest, but as we move forward this weekend, we ask for and appreciate the privacy we need to lay our son to rest. Neither Melissa, myself or anyone from our family will be speaking publicly; we simply cannot at this time," the statement said.

The Graveses had previously released a statement expressing their devastation and asking for privacy while praising the work of officials who searched for the boy.

Police divers recovered the body of Lane Graves on Wednesday from the man-made lake at Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando, Florida, where he had been snatched the night before.

Disney has since installed signs at water's edge warning guests of alligators and snakes.

The resort previously had "No Swimming" signs that did not specifically mention alligators.

"Danger! Alligators and snakes in area," read the new signs, which feature diagrams of the two animals. "Stay away from the water. Do not feed the wildlife."

The new signs are fixed to wooden posts that hold up rope cordoning off the water.

An autopsy found drowning as the cause of death after the body was found intact underwater.

Alligators often roll their prey beneath the surface until the victim stops breathing, experts say, and then stash the body away to eat later.

(Reporting by Daniel Trotta; Editing by Richard Chang)

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Boy's body found after alligator attack at Florida Disney resort

ORLANDO, Florida - Police divers on Wednesday recovered the body of a 2-year-old boy who was grabbed by an alligator in front of his family during a vacation at Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida.

The child was snatched by the alligator as he played at the water's edge on Tuesday night and dragged into a lagoon despite his parents' effort to save him.

Orange County Sheriff Jerry Demings said he and a Catholic priest had informed the family that the boy's body had been recovered near where he vanished and was completely intact.

An autopsy would be carried out, Demings added, but the presumption was that the child was drowned by the alligator.

"It was a tough message to deliver," Demings told a news conference. "Of course the family was distraught, but also I believe somewhat relieved that we were able to find their son ... so that they can come to grips with what has happened."

The alligator was believed to be between 4 and 7 feet (1.2 and 2 meters) long.

Wildlife officials earlier captured and killed five of the reptiles from Seven Seas Lagoon and opened them up to look for traces of the boy. Nick Wiley, head of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said it was too early to say whether one of those five might be the culprit.

"There is a good chance we already have the alligator because we focused our efforts in that proximity, in that area where this incident occurred," he said, adding that the probe would focus on results of forensic tests and bite marks on the child's body.

The resort closed its beaches and recreational marinas on Wednesday while search teams scoured the lagoon, a man-made lake reaching 14 feet (4.2 meters) in depth.

The family, on vacation from the Omaha, Nebraska suburb of Elkhorn, were named as Matt and Melissa Graves. Their son was named Lane.

There are signs prohibiting swimming at the lagoon but the boy was grabbed as he was playing at the water's edge while his family relaxed nearby on the shore, authorities said.

The signs did not specifically warn about alligators, a Disney spokeswoman said, adding that the company would review the situation.

The boy's father rushed into the water and suffered minor cuts on his arm as he fought to wrestle his child from the alligator's grasp, said Jeff Williamson, a spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Office.

Authorities said the boy's mother tried to rescue him too. A lifeguard on duty also was unable to reach the toddler in time.

Alligators are not uncommon in the Seven Seas Lagoon, Wiley said. Alligators have killed five people in Florida in the last 10 years, according to state data.

Wiley said the wildlife commission works with the resort to remove "nuisance alligators" - classed as those which have lost their fear of humans - whenever they are reported.

Disney has operated in the area for 45 years and never had this type of incident, Demings said.

UPSCALE RESORT

The Walt Disney World Resort is the world's most-visited theme park. About 20.5 million people visited the park's Magic Kingdom in 2015, according to the Themed Entertainment Association.

Shares in Walt Disney Co appeared unaffected by the incident, closing down 13 cents at $98.27.

A Walt Disney World Resort spokeswoman said everyone there was devastated by the accident.

Disney Chief Executive Bob Iger issued a statement to express his sympathies "as a parent and a grandparent."

William Lopez, 41, an evangelical pastor from San Francisco, was on vacation with his wife and seven-year-old daughter. He said he thought a path around part of the lagoon should have been fenced off.

"If we have that kind of aggressive animals we should have been safeguarded," Lopez said. "I hope they do something to correct this so that it never happens again. Because we love to come here."

Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is described by Disney as a lavish property combining Victorian elegance with modern sophistication. Rooms start at $569 per night, according to its website.

Guests can rent motorized boats for cruising and fishing, or a private lakeside cabana. Children aged between 4 and 12 also can embark upon "pirate adventures" on the lagoon.

Jim Hill, a theme park historian who runs a popular Disney fan blog, agreed with Demings the company has been "aggressive" about managing the risk from alligators.

But he said that the attack, combined with other recent bad news in the area, could make people reconsider plans to visit Walt Disney World.

The alligator incident came as Orlando reeled from a gunman killing 49 people at a gay nightclub in the city on Sunday before dying in a shoot-out with police.

The night before that attack, singer Christina Grimmie was shot and killed in Orlando, apparently by a deranged fan.

"When people think 'the Happiest Place on Earth', right now that's not Orlando," Hill said, referring to a Disney catchphrase for Disneyland.

Edward Jones analyst Robin Diedrich said there might be a slight decline in Walt Disney World attendance, but it would not be material to the company.

"I think most people would reasonably conclude they will get the issue under control and it's probably safe to go," she said.

The alligator attack follows a May 28 incident when a 3-year-old boy fell into a gorilla enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo, causing zookeepers to kill a gorilla to protect the child.

Animal rights activists criticized Disney for not explicitly warning about alligators in the water.

"A child and apparently five alligators, who were doing only what came naturally to them, have paid with their lives," Ingrid Newkirk, president of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, said in a statement.


(Additional reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Milwaukee, Laila Kearney, Amy Tennery and Jeffrey Dastin in New York, and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Bill Rigby and Sandra Maler)

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Gay Americans are shaken, unbowed by nightclub attack

NEW YORK - For many Americans, gay bars and nightclubs have long served as a place of refuge, a carefree place filled with like-minded souls away from the relatives, employers or anyone else who might judge them disapprovingly, or worse.

The massacre at a gay nightclub in Florida was seen as a jarring reminder of the discrimination they can still face, giving some renewed cause to march through city streets on Sunday in the Gay Pride events that fill the June calendar.

What compelled Omar Mateen to kill people dancing and mingling at Orlando's Pulse nightclub in the early hours of Sunday in the deadliest shooting spree in U.S. history is still being investigated. But the killer's father told NBC News his son had become angry after seeing two men kissing in Miami recently.

President Barack Obama, gay-rights groups and parade goers at Gay Pride events on Sunday cast the killings as an affront to the civil liberties of gay people after a string of hard-fought legal successes, including the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling a year ago that all 50 states must allow same-sex marriage.

"An incident like this brings the hatred that does exist out there to the forefront," Craig Baldwin said as he joined hundreds of people gathering in Washington, D.C., for the annual Gay Pride festival on Sunday, where people were by turns somber and defiant. A 39-year-old director for the Shakespeare Theater Company, Baldwin was handing out stickers that said "Shakespeare - Boys Kissing Boys Since 1592."

"It is a reminder of what we have to do to spread love, not hate," he said.

Julie Sibbing, 53, choked back tears as she discussed the shooting, saying it was important for her not to skip the parade.

"There is risk in this life and we're not going to let hate win," she said. "We've got to be amongst the family today. Everybody is suffering. I think we all kind of want to be together today."

In Orlando, leaders of groups that service LGBT residents announced an effort to raise money for the victims of the shooting had amassed more than $430,000 within hours.

"We will love and support the victims even as we join to eradicate the hatred that lies at the core of this violence," said Mary Meeks, a prominent Florida civil rights lawyer.

FLOWERS AT STONEWALL

Gay Pride parades in cities across the United States have grown out of the marches in 1969 protesting the police raids at the Stonewall Inn, a long-standing New York City bar that served gay people who were otherwise ostracized from society.

Rebecca Triglianos and Nicole Martin, a couple from Irvington, New York, contemplated the growing pile of flowers on Sunday outside the bar, a designated National Historic Landmark for its role in the gay-rights movement.

"This is a meeting space, we came here to celebrate marriage equality so we would come here to mourn a loss as well," said Triglianos, referring to the jubilant crowds that spontaneously gathered at the Greenwich Village bar a year ago to celebrate the Supreme Court's marriage decision.

Obama evoked the important role that bars and nightclubs have played in gay American life in his somber remarks on the attack at Pulse.

"The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub," he said. "It is a place of solidarity and empowerment where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds, and to advocate for their civil rights."

Some older Americans recalled the widespread public indifference that greeted the early years of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s, in which thousands of gay men died, and saw in the outpouring of sympathy following Sunday's attack a welcome sign of changed times.

"The younger gay community has never really witnessed anything as devastating on the community as the older community did with HIV," said Raymond Michael Sharpe, 55, a bartender at another Orlando gay club. "This time, we have the support of the whole world behind us, thank God."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com