ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Florida authorities say an alligator bit a 10-year-old girl on the leg as she sat in shallow water in a lake at a park.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission spokesman Chad Weber said the girl was with her family at Moss Park in Orange County when she was bitten Saturday.
Weber told the Orlando Sentinel (http://bit.ly/2pnpBUX ) the girl was sitting in water roughly 2 feet deep when the 8-foot-9-inch gator bit her on her knee and calf.
Weber said the girl suffered puncture wounds that didn’t appear to be life-threatening. Her family took her to a hospital for treatment. Authorities trapped the alligator.
Orange County Parks and Recreation manager Matt Suedmeyer said the park’s waterfront areas were closed to swimmers for safety until further notice.
Police: Gun, drug arrests down for spring break in Panhandle
PANAMA CITY BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Florida Panhandle authorities say gun and drug arrests during spring break dropped significantly compared with the years before drinking on the beach was banned.
Panama City Beach Mayor Mike Thomas told The News Herald (http://bit.ly/2pjz2Ek ) that spring break visitors weren’t involved in five shootings investigated in March and April.
According to police and Bay County Sheriff’s Office data, the number of drug arrests and guns confiscated this year was about half what it was in 2015. Authorities made 176 beach alcohol arrests under an ordinance first enforced in 2016.
Police Chief Drew Whitman told the newspaper (http://bit.ly/2qP3x6L ) that smaller crowds allowed officers to respond to more investigations, traffic stops and other calls for service.
Some business owners have complained the beach drinking ban has chased away customers and resulted in lower hotel room rates.
Police: 1 fatally shot by Florida officer at car show
TARPON SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) — Authorities say a man was fatally shot by a Florida police officer working off-duty at a car show.
Tarpon Springs Police Maj. Jeffrey Young said visitors attending the show Saturday, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) northwest of Tampa, alerted the officer to a suspicious man riding his bicycle nearby.
Young said the officer stopped the man and he initially gave the officer a fake name before providing another name, which the officer repeated over the radio.
Young said the officer’s radio then went silent until he said, “Shots fired,” three times.
According to Young, the officer then said over the radio that the suspect “came at me with a knife.”
The man was pronounced dead at a hospital. The officer was not injured.
Neither the officer nor the suspect was identified. Young said the Florida Department of Law Enforcement will investigate
