It started with five gunshots echoing through the thick brush off Stringfellow Road.
Then came the confusion and horror.
“My neighbor came down on his bike and said, ‘Somebody just shot an alligator,’” said Larry Flor, president of the September States association in Bokeelia. “He was pretty shook up.”
Flor said he went to see for himself.
“I walked back there, and the alligator was dead in the weeds,” Flor said. “Somebody shot it five times. I went back and dragged it out.”
The shooting happened last week in Bokeelia, where neighbors say alligator sightings are common, but violence like this is not. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission is now investigating what happened.
According to state law, killing a wild alligator without a permit is a felony in Florida. The act becomes even more concerning during mating season, when gators are most active and vulnerable.
“It’s shocking that somebody would even do that to an animal like that,” said Michelle Bartlett, who was driving along Stringfellow Road just moments before the shooting. “He was alive when I'd seen him.”
Bartlett said she even saw people taunting the gator beforehand.
“There were two other guys here throwing stuff at him,” she said. “We saw it. It was a real gator.”
Flor added that after the animal was shot, someone cut off its tail, too.
“You don’t have a right to just pull it out and shoot a gator,” Flor said. “We’re pretty appalled. Stay away from them. Just leave them alone.”
As the investigation continues, neighbors are hoping for accountability, and for a reminder of how wildlife should be respected.
“For folks out here, it’s not the gators they fear — it’s people like this,” Flor said.
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