A 71-year-old man was killed Friday by a nearly 12-foot alligator in the second fatal attack in Florida this year.
According to CNN, the Winter Garden Police Department said that Steven Hamilton was standing on the shoreline of Lake Apopka at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park, 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Orlando, when the reptile struck around 5 pm on Friday, October 16.
Winter Garden Fire Chief Jose Gainza told FOX35, the presence of other active alligators in the water complicated any chance of rescuing Hamilton, whose body was recovered around two hours later.
Hamilton’s death marked the second deadly alligator attack in Florida this year.
After a 31-year-old Oviedo woman, Brittany Clark, was killed by a 13-foot alligator near her home in June, Republican Rep. Greg Steube introduced a resolution calling for the Comptroller General and US Department of the Interior to study the impacts of the American alligator’s listing as “threatened due to similarity of appearance” on Florida’s ability to remove nuisance alligators from residential and commercial waterways.
He said the species has been fully recovered since 1987, but it remains protected to prevent trafficking and the hunting of the similar-looking American crocodile.
Using Florida state data, the two 2026 deaths bring the total number of individuals killed by alligators since 1948 to 34. Among them was a 61-year-old woman tipped out of her canoe by an alligator in 2025 and an 85-year-old widow who was dragged out of her backyard by an alligator while walking her dog in 2023.
Police Capt. Michael Mason said authorities were not alerted in advance Friday that an alligator was near the shoreline of the lake, possibly because the lake “has tons of alligators in it.”
He said police have launched a joint investigation with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose trappers captured and killed the animal.
