WINTER GARDEN, Florida. —
Steven Hamilton, a 71-year-old man who area residents said regularly fished in a retention pond near Lake Apopka in Winter Garden, was killed Friday in an alligator attack.
Hamilton, of Winter Garden, was well known to those who frequented the pond at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park.
“Every time it was a ‘Hey Steve, how are you?’ You know, I just registered. He was out there almost every night fishing,” Connor Kelley said.
Jason Handley, another park regular, said, “He was a regular who would come here and fish.”
“My stomach spilled”
Handley arrived at the park Friday shortly after hearing about the attack, but initially did not know who was involved. Kelley was also there and recalled the moment he learned it was Hamilton.
“As I was leaving to go home, I heard someone say that it was apparently an older man who fished there every night, and immediately my stomach dropped because I was so afraid it was Steve, and it turned out that unfortunately it was,” Kelley said.
Kelley, who had fished with Hamilton on several occasions, described him as kind and generous.
“It just shows he was a very nice man. Very understandable. Someone else in town told me he helped his kids fish there a few times,” Kelley said.
Winter Garden police said Hamilton was fishing when the attack happened. He didn’t survive.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officials said a trapper then pulled a nearly 12-foot alligator from the water. Handley witnessed the capture.
“Yeah, he got it. He got it,” Handley said in a video he took of the catch Friday.
“They hunt”
Minutes from the pond, Emily Porto, who lives on Lake Apopka, saw a news helicopter overhead Friday and immediately feared the worst.
“I went live, and it was there, and I said, ‘Oh no. This can’t happen.’ And I warned them,” Porto said.
Porto said she called FWC after her 8-year-old Samoyed, Stormi, was killed by an alligator in the lake last month. She shared a photo that she says shows Stormi in the alligator’s mouth. She also posted recent phone calls she made to FWC’s Nuisance Alligator Program.
She said a trapper was dispatched after her dog was killed, but the alligator responsible was not caught. Since then, she said, more alligators have been spotted near her property and trappers have returned to the area. Porto calls for more action to remove alligators from the lake.
“They can’t, when I call, they can’t just tell me that, you know, any body of water in Florida can have an alligator. I understand that. The alligator took my dog offshore. The alligator took the man yesterday offshore. They hunt. So they get very aggressive. They’re not afraid and we have to worry about people,” Porto said.
For those who knew Hamilton, his death is a stark reminder of the dangers posed by Florida’s waterways.
“It wasn’t someone who was, you know, harassing alligators or anything like that. It was just a very unfortunate event that happened and a very sober reminder, you know, of how careful you have to be around the water in Florida,” Kelley said.
FWC on How to Stay Safe
- Keep a safe distance if you see an alligator.
- Keep animals on a leash and away from the water’s edge. Pets often resemble alligators’ natural prey.
- Swim only in designated swimming areas during the day and without your pet. Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn.
- Never feed an alligator. It is illegal and dangerous. When fed, alligators can lose their natural wariness and learn to associate people with the availability of food. This can lead to an alligator becoming a nuisance and needing to be removed from the wild.
- If anyone is concerned about an alligator, they should call FWC’s toll-free nuisance alligator hotline at 866-FWC-GATOR (866-392-4286), and we will dispatch a contracted nuisance alligator trapper to resolve the situation.
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