By Eva-Marie Ayala, Fort Worth (Texas) Star-Telegram
DALLAS -- A 300-pound gorilla that escaped from its habitat at the Dallas Zoo was shot and killed by police Thursday after it injured three people, authorities said.
The three people -- two women and a 3-year-old boy -- were taken to separate hospitals with “extensive bites” and scratches, officials said. Another person was injured but was treated at the scene, police said. It was unclear whether the person was injured by the gorilla.
Jabari, a 13-year-old western lowland gorilla, escaped from his habitat just after 4:45 p.m. Police said officials evacuated zoo patrons or kept them in locked-down facilities as they attempted to contain the gorilla.
Dallas tactical officers shot the gorilla when he charged them.
“I’ve been to the scene, and I’ve seen that the gorilla was on top of two little childrens’ sandals,” Deputy Police Chief Danny Garcia said at a news conference an hour after the incident.
Dallas Fire-Rescue officials said a 39-year-old woman, a 26-year-old mother and her 3-year-old son were injured by the gorilla and taken by ambulance to Dallas hospitals. The 39-year-old woman was taken to Dallas Methodist Medical Center, the 26-year-old woman to Parkland Memorial Hospital and the boy to Children’s Medical Center.
KXAS/Channel 5 identified the 26-year-old woman as Keisha Herd. The station also reported that the 3-year-old boy was in critical condition.
The 39-year-old woman, Cheryl Reichert of Mesquite, conducted a news conference late Thursday at Dallas Methodist Medical Center. She recalled the chaos and her confrontation with the gorilla.
“All these people were screaming and running for their lives,” she said. “I don’t think I’ll ever be that scared in my life.”
Reichert said a zoo employee helped her after the gorilla attacked her. She said she remembered watching the flesh fall off her arm as she was running.
She also saw the 3-year-old who was attacked. “I’ll never forget that look on his face,” she said.
Authorities said the gorilla threw the boy and his mother against a wall. The boy suffered the most injuries, with bites all over his body. His mother had bites on her legs.
None of the injuries was believed to be life-threatening.
Zoo Director Rich Buickerood said it is unclear how the gorilla escaped from his 2-acre exhibit, which has walls about 12 to 16 feet high.
Zoo visitors on the Nature Trail in the Wilds of Africa saw the gorilla and called 911, according to a zoo news release. At the same time, a Code Red was issued by the zoo staff.
Savina Vallejo, 16, of Frisco was near the gorilla exhibit when she heard loud banging noises and screaming. She turned to see what was happening.
“I saw the gorilla; he was just standing there, and then I saw him running, so I grabbed the baby and started running,” she said, referring to a 3-year-old cousin who was with her.
Witnesses said chaos quickly ensued and a mother dropped her child as she fled. Many families were separated during the confusion, and police were conducting a thorough search of the zoo late Thursday to make sure no one was injured or left behind, Deputy Chief Garcia said.
“You can imagine the pandemonium we had down here,” Garcia said.
Buickerood said one patron cut into meshing in the Forest Aviary to free others who were trapped in the section where the gorilla was. He said another worked to distract Jabari.
Jabari was shot at three times by long rifles purchased by the zoo.
Garcia defended the use of firearms. He said there was not enough time to locate tranquilizer guns because authorities feared that visitors were still in the area and because the animal had already attacked once.
When two officers located Jabari, he charged at them and they fired three shots, Garcia said.
“We had a worse-case scenario here. ... We feel terrible that we had to put this gorilla down,” Garcia said.
Buickerood said zoo staff members and police officers have gone through various training scenarios in case such a situation ever arose. Although he said he wished it had ended differently, Buickerood commended the officers for their actions.
He said that gorillas are naturally gentle animals and that Jabari, who was obtained from the Toronto Zoo eight years ago, was a “frisky” young gorilla coming into his prime. He said he doesn’t know what caused him to attack.
“I would suspect that Jabari was as frightened as everyone else,” he said.
“We’re just hoping we can learn from this,” Buickerood said. “He was a very inquisitive youngster, and it’s a shame to lose him like this.”
According to Dallaszoo.org, seven gorillas are kept in the Wilds of Africa habitat. The habitat is designed to allow the zoo’s gorillas to roam freely in an exhibit that replicates their native equatorial forest habitat.
The exhibit features two groups of western lowland gorillas, each led by a silverback male.
The exhibit also features the Field Research Station, a thatch-roofed building with electronic equipment and video screens that allow researchers and visitors to observe gorilla behavior, according to the Web site. Gorilla guides are on hand daily to provide educational information.
In 1998, a 340-pound gorilla escaped from his room at the Dallas Zoo, raided the kitchen, bit one of his keepers and then dragged her down a hallway.
The gorilla, named Hercules, was captured after a veterinarian shot him with a tranquilizing dart. He was loaded onto a tarp and dragged back to his bedroom to sleep it off.
The Fort Worth Zoo has an animal response team to deal with such situations, although police intervention is possible, depending on the situation, said Lyndsay Nantz, a Fort Worth Zoo spokeswoman. If an animal escapes, the first step is for senior staff members in the area to be alerted. They would assess the situation, and what they would decide to do would depend on whether the animal was inside a building or outside, and how much of the zoo needed to be evacuated, Nantz said.
“We would first try to assess the situation, and quarantine or get the animal in a situation where it would be separated from guests and staff,” Nantz said.
Normally, supervisors would be in charge of tranquilizing the animal, she said. A zoo has a team for large and dangerous animal escapes that is supposed to handle situations such as the one that occurred in Dallas, she said.
The team, which would be under the control of high-ranking zoo supervisors, could kill an animal if needed, she said.
About 6,000 people visited the Dallas Zoo on Thursday, but portions of the zoo will be closed today.