"F--- the alligators": Man mocked alligator before fatal attack in Texas bayou

TEXAS -- The man who was killed by an alligator in Texas had mocked the animal before jumping into gator-infested waters Friday, an official said.

Tommie Woodward, 28, ignored warning signs and dismissed employee's pleas against swimming at Bukart's Marina at about 2:30 a.m., officials said.

 

"He said, 'blank the alligators' and jumped into the water and almost immediately yelled for help," Orange County Justice of the Peace Rodney Price told KDFM, likely censoring himself for the camera.

Woodward had headed to the marina with an unidentified woman and went swimming, despite warnings about a 12-foot alligator in the bayou, marina owner Allen Burkart told the Houston Chronicle.

"They were begging with him not to do it," Bukart said.

Michelle Wright describes seeing the body of Tommie Woodward
after he was attacked by an alligator early Friday morning.
Photo taken Friday 7/3/15 Jake Daniels/The Enterprise

 

Marina employee Michelle Wright cried as she told KDFM she had pleaded with him not to go in the water and then witnessed his death.

"[The] next thing I know this girl is screaming and an alligator's got him," Wright said. "I saw his body floating face down and then he's up there for a couple seconds and then he gets dragged back down and pulled off."

Woodward soon disappeared from view. His body was found two hours later.

 

He was the first person killed by an alligator in Texas since 1836, when a man was attacked while swimming across a bayou.

Heavy rain has displaced alligators in the area in the last 45 days, causing them to become more territorial, especially as they're in breeding season, authorities said.

Woodward had recently moved to Orange from St. Louis with his twin brother to work at a shipyard, said Wright, who was friends with him.

"I kept trying to figure out and calling his name and calling his name and he just, he was dead. And it's heartbreaking," Wright said.
(NY Daily News - July 4, 2015)