A 9-year-old boy who survived a far too close encounter with an alligator is now sharing his story. On Thursday, James Barney Jr. was attacked by a gator at a lakefront park in St. Cloud, Florida.
“Where’s the emergency? Hi, my friend got bit by an alligator.” [Via Slate]
A 9-year-old boy who survived a very close encounter with an alligator is now sharing his story.
“At first I thought someone was just playing with me and I didn’t know what happened.” [Via Sky News]
On Thursday, James Barney Jr. was attacked by a gator at a lakefront park in St. Cloud, Florida.
“Not only did he fight off an alligator with his bare hands, in the aftermath of the attack, he was calm and collected.” [Via ABC News]
“I felt its teeth and I didn’t know what to do so I immediately reacted and hit it a couple times.” [Via CTV]
The brave boy used all his strength to pry the alligator’s jaw open to stop the attack.
“He’s got about 30 different teeth marks of varying degrees and several that are probably the scratch marks of the claws.” [Via WESH]
James was later taken in for surgery and is expected to make a full recovery.
Animal control officials estimate the gator measures about 9 feet long and weighs up to 500 pounds. The park beach was closed following the incident and trappers were called in an effort to catch the creature.
