71-year-old man goes fishing at Lake Apopka. Then a 12-foot alligator attacks, and other water predators stop rescuers from reaching him for 2 hours
Be careful with these alligators.
A 71-year-old man died after an alligator attack at Lake Apopka, Florida. Steven Hamilton of Winter Garden was fishing on the shore at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park when the nearly 12-foot alligator attacked him around 5:00 PM on Friday.
As reported by Fox35 Orlando, the situation became even worse because rescuers could not reach Hamilton for two hours. Winter Garden Fire Chief Jose Gainza explained that other active alligators in the water made it too dangerous for anyone to get to him immediately. His body was recovered about two hours after the attack occurred.
Police Captain Michael Mason noted that authorities did not receive any warnings about an alligator near the shore before the attack. He mentioned that the lake has tons of alligators in it, which makes the area dangerous for anyone standing near the edge. Police are working with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on a joint investigation. Trappers from the commission eventually captured and killed the alligator involved in the attack.
Police chief warns people to keep their distance from waterways
Captain Mason warned people to be careful and aware of their surroundings when they are near Florida waterways. He stated, “Keep your distance. It looks like it’s docile, it looks like your Florida emblem, but it can be dangerous.” It is easy to forget that these animals are wild predators, but this incident shows that we need to maintain a healthy distance at all times.
This is the second fatal alligator attack in Florida this year. In June, a 31-year-old woman named Brittany Clark was killed by a 13-foot alligator near her home in Oviedo. These incidents are pushing some officials to look at current regulations.
A congressman filed a resolution to study the threat of American alligators
Republican U.S. Representative Greg Steube introduced a resolution that asks the Comptroller General and the U.S. Department of the Interior to study how the status of American alligators as threatened due to similarity of appearance affects the state’s ability to remove nuisance alligators from waterways.
Representative Steube pointed out that the species has been fully recovered since 1987. The protection currently in place is meant to stop the trafficking and hunting of the American crocodile, which looks similar to the alligator. This policy debate shows how complicated it is to manage wildlife in areas where humans and alligators live so close together.
According to Florida state data, these two deaths in 2026 bring the total number of people killed by alligators since 1948 to 34. This list includes a 61-year-old woman who was tipped out of her canoe by an alligator in 2025 and an 85-year-old woman who was attacked while walking her dog in her backyard in 2023.
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