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Alligator suspected of eating person in Florida caught, killed

'I looked closer [and the alligator] had like a bottom torso in its mouth,' witness Ja'Marcus Bullard says
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PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — An alligator suspected of eating a person has been caught and killed in Florida.

Deputies responded to 134th Ave N and 121st Street in Pinellas County regarding a dead person in McKay Creek.

Ja'Marcus Bullard said he was walking to a job interview when he made the grisly discovery.

"I just happened to look over into this lake, and I saw the alligator head, but then once I looked closer it had like a bottom torso in its mouth," Bullard said.

Bullard said he didn't believe what he was seeing.

Ja'Marcus Bullard explains the shock of seeing the alligator with the person's body on Sept. 22, 2023.
Ja'Marcus Bullard explains the shock of seeing the alligator with the person's body on Sept. 22, 2023.

"My brain was trying to not believe it, but it was real," Bullard said.

Aerial video showed crews pulling the gator out of McKay Creek, just north of Ridgecrest Park. Witnesses say the reptile was later killed.

"They told us it was 13 feet long," Bullard said.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission are investigating this incident.

But as crews departed the scene Friday, those who live in and walk around this neighborhood said they were left afraid.

"My kids walk by there all the time, so it's really scary," Jennifer Dean, who lives nearby, said.

The sheriff's office has not released the name of the victim or the circumstances of the death.