Police kill 4-foot alligator

STAFF REPORTS

COITSVILLE — Police Capt. Gary Abeid said he was skeptical when police received a call from a resident about a 4-foot-long alligator on his property.

But when he saw that the reptile was real, Abeid’s reaction was, “It’s big enough to hurt somebody.”

The alligator was secured with an animal snare, and after checking with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources’ Division of Wildlife for protocol, Abeid killed it with his rifle “to keep it from being a threat to any residents.”

The Division of Wildlife officer said they destroy such reptiles when they run across them, said Abeid, a 24-year veteran of the Coitsville Police Department.

Abeid said the alligator was discovered at about 2 p.m. Thursday in a natural waterway drainage ditch that runs at the extreme rear of properties on the north side of Oak Street about a half-mile off the road.

The alligator was found by Robert Kacir, where he and some others were fixing a fence at the rear of his business, Kacir’s Amish Builders, located at 361 Coitsville-Hubbard Road (state Route 616). The fence was about a half-mile off the road.

The alligator’s body was left with Kacir, who said he would bury it, Abeid said.

He said the owner of the reptile is unknown, but said police would today further discuss trying to determine who owned the alligator.

This was Abeid’s first experience handling an alligator in his 24-year law enforcement career.

“We know what to do with rabid raccoons or other animals, but an alligator is something new,” he said.

However, finding alligators in this area is apparently becoming more common.

On Aug. 25, a 31‚Ñ2-foot alligator was found in a sewer in the 1300 block of Dryden Avenue in Youngstown. Dave Nelson, an Ohio Division of Wildlife nuisance trapper, said at the time he had rescued about five alligators in 2008. He said he planned to contact a university in the Cleveland area that takes abandoned exotic animals, and also e-mail other trappers in the state, to see if any know of a place that would accept the alligator.

alcorn@vindy.com