“It seems unimaginable, especially at the Happiest Place on Earth,” CNN reported after 2-year-old Lane Graves was pulled underwater by an alligator at a Disney resort in Orlando, Florida.
The boy was wading in roughly one foot of water at the edge of the lake on Tuesday night when the alligator—which witnesses said was four to seven feet long—grabbed him and dragged him back into the water. A recovery team found the boy’s body about 16 hours later.
Officials said that the child’s father tried to fight off the alligator, but neither he nor a lifeguard could save the boy’s life.
The Associated Press reported:
The beach where the reptile grabbed the child is part of the luxury Grand Floridian resort, across the lake from Disney’s Magic Kingdom theme park. The lake stretches over about 200 acres and reaches a depth of 14 feet. It feeds into a series of canals that wind through the entire Disney property.
Following the attack, Disney closed the beaches at its resorts as a precaution against similar occurrences.
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An employee at a neighboring resort tells PEOPLE that guests and employees aren’t even allowed to go on the sand.
“This is a big deal. This isn’t like a ride malfunction and someone got hurt. This is tragic. Everyone’s freaked out about it,” the source says. “[The company] is going to train us all about what we should do when this type of thing happens.”
The source adds, “The beaches are closed. There is tape keeping people away from any of the lakes. They are taking this very seriously.”
People also reported:
There are “no swimming” signs posted in the area where the boy was taken, however, there is no signage warning visitors about the presence of alligators, a Disney spokesperson confirmed to PEOPLE.
Bloomberg reported that the beaches were remaining closed “until further notice,” even after the boy’s body was found. It continued:
About nine different properties are affected by the beach closure, Demings said. Disney park employees routinely track alligators and work with the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to remove them, Nick Wiley, executive director of the wildlife agency, told reporters.
“Disney does everything by the book and they have an amazing program,” he said. “The story here is this is a tragedy—it’s terrible but it’s a rare occurrence. Fortunately it doesn’t happen very often and we’re doing everything we can to ensure it doesn’t happen again.”
A spokesman for Disney said that Disney’s chief executive, Bob Iger, called and spoke to the Graves family, CNN reported.
Iger is in China to oversee the opening of Shanghai Disneyland. CNN continued:
“As a parent and a grandparent, my heart goes out to the Graves family during this time of devastating loss,“ Iger said in a statement Wednesday evening. "My thoughts and prayers are with them, and I know everyone at Disney joins me in offering our deepest sympathies.”
George Kalogridis, the president of Walt Disney World Resort, booked the first available flight from Shanghai to Orlando after learning about the gator attack.
Kalogridis said in a statement:
There are no words to convey the profound sorrow we feel for the family and their unimaginable loss. We are devastated and heartbroken by this tragic accident and are doing what we can to help them during this difficult time.
On behalf of everyone at Disney, we offer them our deepest sympathy.
[Editor’s note: Disney is a strategic partner of Ragan Communications, publisher of PR Daily.]
Disney will investigate the signage at its resorts, Fox News reported on Wednesday:
A Disney official said Wednesday the company plans to “thoroughly review” its alligator warning signage around a resort where a 2-year-old boy was killed by a reptile that snatched him out of shallow water.
The company official spoke to the Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because Disney has yet to prepare a formal statement on the matter.
Demings told The Associated Press that investigators would look at charging the boy’s parents, though it’s likely nothing will be brought against them.
“There nothing in this case to indicate that there was anything extraordinary” in terms of neglect by the parents, Demings told the publication.
Multiple reports say Disney employees have since caught and killed five alligators in the waters near Tuesday’s incident.
Though Florida is home to an estimated 1 million alligators, wildlife officials said the attack was a rare instance. This week’s occurrence is the 24th death from wild alligators in Florida since 1973.
Orlando was already reeling from tragedy. The alligator event came just days after a gunman opened fire with an assault weapon at a local nightclub, killing 49 people, the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.
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