LAKE COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida sherif's deputy shot and killed an alligator Friday after it forced a 15-year-old girl into a tree.
Lake County deputies said the girl was floating on a raft in the water when a 10 or 11-foot alligator approached her. The girl was able to reach a tree, but not the shoreline.
From the tree, the girl was able to call her parents who then called the Lake County Sheriff's Office.
The girl had been in the tree for more than a half hour and the gator was just feet away from the base of the tree when the deputy arrived, authorities said.