A 71-year-old man fishing at a Florida lake was killed Friday by a nearly 12-foot alligator, the second fatal attack reported this year.
Steven Hamilton of Winter Garden was standing on the shores of Lake Apopka at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park, 15 miles (24 kilometers) northwest of Orlando, when he was attacked around 5 p.m., Winter Garden police said.
The presence of other active alligators in the water complicated any chance of saving Hamilton, whose body was found about two hours later, Winter Garden Fire Chief Jose Gainza said. told FOX35.
Police Capt. Michael Mason said authorities were not alerted in advance to the presence of an alligator near the lakeshore, perhaps because it “had tons of alligators in it.” He said police launched a joint investigation with the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose trappers captured and killed the alligator.
Mason reminded people to be aware of their surroundings and respect wildlife.
“Keep your distance,” he says. “It looks like it’s tame, it looks like your Florida icon, but it can be dangerous.”
After a 31-year-old Oviedo woman, Brittany Clark, was killed by a 13-foot alligator near her home in June, Republican U.S. Rep. Greg Steube introduced a resolution calling on the comptroller general and the U.S. Department of the Interior to study the impacts of listing the American alligator as “threatened due to its similarity in appearance” on Florida’s ability to remove nuisance alligators from the roads navigable residential and commercial.
He said the species has been fully recovered since 1987 but remains protected to prevent trafficking and hunting of the similar-looking American crocodile.
Using Florida State Datathe two deaths in 2026 bring the total number of individuals killed by alligators since 1948 to 34. They included a 61 year old woman knocked out of her canoe by an alligator in 2025 and an 85-year-old widow who was dragged from her backyard by an alligator while walking your dog in 2023.
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