WINTER GARDEN, Fla. —
Steven Hamilton, a 71-year-old man who people in the area said regularly fished at 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 in Dr. Bradford Memorial Park.
“Every time it was a, ‘Hey Steve, how’s it going?’ You know, just checking in. He was out there almost every single night fishing,” said Connor Kelley.
Jason Handley, another regular at the park, said, “He was a regular that comes out here and fishes.”
‘My stomach dropped’
Handley arrived at the park Friday shortly after hearing about the attack but did not initially 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 apparently it was an older gentleman who fishes there every night, and just immediately my stomach dropped because I was so worried it was Steve, and it turns out it unfortunately was,” Kelley said.
Kelley, who had fished with Hamilton a few times, described him as kind and generous.
“It just shows that he was a very kind man. Very relatable. I heard from someone else in town that he had helped her kids with fishing down there a few times,” Kelley said.
Winter Garden police said Hamilton was fishing when the attack occurred. He did not survive.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officials said a trapper later removed a nearly 12-foot alligator from the water. Handley witnessed the capture.
“Yeah, he’s got him. He’s got him,” Handley said in a video he took of the capture Friday.
‘They are hunting’
Just a few minutes from the pond, Emily Porto, who lives along Lake Apopka, saw a news helicopter overhead Friday and immediately feared the worst.
“I went on live, and it was there, and I said, ‘Oh no. That can’t be happening.’ And I warned them,” Porto said.
Porto said she has been calling FWC after her 8-year-old Samoyed, Stormi, was killed by an alligator in the lake last month. She shared a photo that she said shows Stormi in the gator’s mouth. She also displayed recent phone calls she made to FWC’s nuisance alligator program.
She said a trapper was sent out after her dog was killed, but said the gator responsible was not caught. Since then, she said, more alligators have been spotted near her property, and trappers have returned to the area. Porto is calling for more action to remove alligators from the lake.
“They cannot, when I call, they cannot just tell me that, you know, any body of water in Florida, it can have a gator. I understand that. The gator took my dog off shore. The gator took the man yesterday off shore. They are hunting. So they are becoming very aggressive. They are fearless, and we have to care about people,” Porto said.
For those who knew Hamilton, his death is a stark reminder of the dangers posed by Florida’s waterways.
“He was not someone that, you know, was harassing any alligators or anything like that. It was just a very unfortunate event that happened and a very sober reminder of, you know, how just mindful to be around water in Florida,” Kelley said.
FWC on how to stay safeKeep a safe distance if you see an alligator. Keep pets on a leash and away from the water’s edge. Pets often resemble alligators’ natural prey. Swim only in designated swimming areas during daylight hours and without your pet. Alligators are most active between dusk and dawn. Never feed an alligator. It’s illegal and dangerous. When fed, alligators can lose their natural wariness and instead 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 someone 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.