An alligator at the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, Fla., on March 16, 2023. A man who was fishing on the shore of a Florida lake was bitten and killed by an alligator on Friday, Oct. 16, 2026, according to police and wildlife authorities. The man, Steven Hamilton, 71, was fishing at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park on the south side of Lake Apopka, in Winter Garden, a spokeswoman for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in an emailed statement. (Scott McIntyre/The New York Times)
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A man who was fishing on the shore of a Florida lake was bitten and killed by an alligator on Friday, according to police and wildlife authorities.
Steven Hamilton, 71, was fishing at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park on the south side of Lake Apopka, in Winter Garden, a spokesperson for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said in an emailed statement.
The alligator, which was nearly 12 feet long, was “dispatched,” Capt. Michael Mason of the Winter Garden Police Department said during a news conference Friday. When asked by a reporter if the alligator had been euthanized, Mason said only that it was “removed as a danger to the public.”
Police first responded to the lake area — a known alligator habitat in Central Florida — at about 5 p.m. Friday, he said.
“Lake Apopka has tons of alligators in it,” Mason said, “so that’s not uncommon to see alligators in this part of town at all.”
Fish and Wildlife, which is investigating alongside Winter Garden police, said emergency personnel declared Hamilton dead at the scene. The agency said he had been bitten on the leg by the alligator. An alligator trapper was then sent to find and remove the reptile.
Lake Apopka, which is 15 to 20 miles northwest of Orlando, is Florida’s fourth-largest lake at roughly 30,000 acres, according to the St. Johns River Water Management District. In 2024, it had the 14th-largest alligator population among lakes in the state, with more than 4,600, The Palm Beach Post reported.
There are alligators in all 67 Florida counties, according to Fish and Wildlife. The agency estimates that the state has a healthy and stable alligator population surpassing 1 million.
Though there is a robust number of the reptiles throughout Florida, attacks on people are rare. They are more common in or around water, as alligators are not well adapted to capturing prey on land. They can, however, lunge at prey within a few feet of a shoreline.
“Local wildlife, respect it, keep your distance,” Mason said Friday. An alligator “looks like it’s docile. It looks like your Florida emblem. But it can be dangerous.”
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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
By Emmett Lindner/Scott McIntyre
c. 2026 The New York Times Company
