{"id":934637,"date":"2026-10-20T06:46:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T06:46:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934637\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T06:46:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T06:46:12","slug":"winter-garden-florida-steven-hamilton-71-remembered-after-being-killed-by-alligator-while-fishing-in-lake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/934637\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Garden, Florida: Steven Hamilton, 71, remembered after being killed by alligator while fishing in lake"},"content":{"rendered":"

The grim details of an alligator attack that killed a man last week have been revealed.<\/p>\n

Steven Hamilton died on October 16 at Florida\u2019s Dr Bradford Memorial Park while fishing.<\/p>\n

Winter Garden police were contacted around 5.20pm with reports of the attack.<\/p>\n

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After catching a fish at the park\u2019s lake, the 71-year-old reportedly tried to take a photo of his catch when an alligator bit his leg and dragged him underwater.<\/p>\n

Emergency crews, who quickly responded to the attack, had difficulty reaching Hamilton because the alligator refused to let go of the man, FOX35<\/a> reported.<\/p>\n

Once trappers were able to subdue the animal, which was roughly 3.7 metres in length, Hamilton\u2019s body was released but he was quickly pronounced dead.<\/p>\n

The body was recovered around 7pm, fire chief Jose Gainza told FOX35<\/a>, as attempts were made challenging because of the active alligator population in the area.<\/p>\n

Hamilton died from a blunt-force injury to his left leg and drowning, the Orange County Medical Examiner\u2019s report said.<\/p>\n

The death was ruled an accident.<\/p>\n

The report noted that Hamilton suffered severe injuries, including probable tooth marks, to his left leg.<\/p>\n

A regular at the park, Connor Kelley, told WESH<\/a> Hamilton was there \u201calmost every single night\u201d fishing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs 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,\u201d he told the outlet.<\/p>\n

The park\u2019s lake is widely known for having alligators, as it connects with Lake Apopka, home to central Florida\u2019s largest American alligator population.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelley said it was a reminder of the dangers faced in the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Kelley described the fellow-fisherman as a generous man.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just shows that he was a very kind man, very relatable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard from someone else in town that he had helped her kids with fishing down there a few times.\u201d<\/p>\n

An alligator believed to be responsible for the attack was captured by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) and was killed.<\/p>\n

The attack is being investigated by the FWC and Winter Garden police.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The grim details of an alligator attack that killed a man last week have been revealed. Steven Hamilton…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":934638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40,2957,1720],"class_list":["post-934637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-usa","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=934637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/934637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/934638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=934637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=934637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=934637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}