Alligator kills 71-year-old fisherman on a Lake Apopka shoreline
WPBF 25 News reports that other alligators in the water slowed the recovery of Steven Hamilton's body in Winter Garden.
WPBF 25 News
Story of Why this story? The video opened at a pace of 174,090 views a day, 198 times a normal first day on this channel (877).
71-year-old man dies after alligator attack in Winter Garden
Steven Hamilton was fishing at Dr. Bradford Memorial Park, beside Lake Apopka in Winter Garden, when an alligator attacked and killed him. He was 71.
Winter Garden Police Capt. Michael Mason makes one point clear in the WPBF 25 News report: Hamilton was not in the lake. "No, he was on the shoreline," Mason says. He adds that alligators are a common sight in that part of town, because Lake Apopka holds a great many of them.
Reporter Patrick Perez explains that other alligators in the water initially made it hard for the fire department to recover Hamilton's body. Aerial footage shows Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission trappers and first responders pulling an alligator of roughly 12 feet onto the grassy bank, and the report includes the moment a trapper shoots it.
The short report passed 100,000 views within ten hours, and its comment section, which usually stays nearly empty, filled quickly. Many viewers ask why the animal had to be killed and how the trappers knew which alligator was responsible. Others share their own rules for staying away from Florida's lakes and rivers.
Mason ends with a warning about the state's best-known reptile: "It looks like it's docile, it looks like your Florida emblem, but it can be dangerous."
Published on Trari
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- Channel
- WPBF 25 News
- Subscribers
- 255,000
- Channel views, last 7 days
- 820,647
- Channel views, pace per day
- 128,998 (on a normal day: 134,335)
- Video published
- October 17, 2026
- Video views so far
- 102,331 (less than a day online)
- Video views, pace per day
- 174,090
The numbers
The figures show how quickly this short report traveled compared with the station's other Shorts, while the channel's overall day stayed close to normal.
