Stunning new video has surfaced capturing a police officer’s desperate sprint through a wooded area to reach a young woman who, tragically, would soon succumb to a horrific alligator attack.
The victim, 31-year-old Brittany Clark, was hiking through Florida’s Little Big Econ State Forest with her boyfriend and a friend. The group decided to cool off with a swim in the river shortly after 1:30 p.m. on Sunday.
It was then that an alligator suddenly approached and launched a brutal attack on Clark, viciously tearing off both of her arms.
The dramatic scene, captured by body camera footage, follows an officer dashing down a trail through the forest. He is ultimately led to a small beach area where Clark is shielded by a blue pop-up beach tent.
Beneath the shelter, her boyfriend, Chance Allison, can also be seen. An off-camera voice captures the gravity of the situation, uttering: ‘It’s bad.’
The deputy then drops to his knees and pulls out a Velcro tourniquet before the redacted clip ends.
Clark, from Orlando, had been swimming in ‘shoulder-deep water’ in the Econlockhatchee River near a popular hiking trail.
Allison tried to pull her from the animal’s jaws and rang 911 at around 1.30pm.
A caller could be heard telling the operator: ‘Somebody got bit by a gator.
Footage captures the moment a police officer sprints through woodland to reach a young woman who would later die after being mauled by an alligator while swimming
Police bodycam footage shows an officer sprinting along a woodland path towards a small beach, where a woman directs him to a blue pop-up beach shelter which is covering Clark. Her boyfriend Chance Allison also appears to be beneath it
A medical examiner’s report obtained by the Daily Mail gave details about Clark’s final moments, including how her boyfriend heroically fought the gator even as it dragged them both underwater into a ‘death roll’
Brittany Clark, 31, was hiking in the Little Big Econ State Forest in Florida with her boyfriend and a friend when the trio took a dip in a river shortly after 1.30pm on Sunday
‘Bad. Real bad. Please, hurry.
‘One of them is hanging on by a thread, and the other one’s off.’
Clark was rushed to hospital but died from her injuries.
Trappers later killed a 4-metre (13-foot) alligator at the scene and a 3.8-metre (12.5-foot) alligator half a mile away, with DNA samples sent to an FWC laboratory in Gainesville.
FWC spokesman Chad Weber said the reptiles’ mating season was ending, a time when they can be ‘very territorial.’
Allison paid tribute to Clark in a text to a US broadcaster: ‘With this being such a traumatic event I do not think that I will be able to hold myself together to talk about her on Zoom or any other video platform.
‘But what I can tell you is Brittany was such an amazing and caring person and didn’t deserve to go out in such a way.
‘She was the strongest and most outgoing person I’ve ever met in my 30 years of life.
‘She loved her job where she operated a bulldozer running a dirt crew.
‘And loved going out on the water every chance she could.
‘Never in a million years would we have seen this nightmare come about.’
A medical examiner’s report obtained by the Daily Mail gave details about Clark’s final moments, including how her boyfriend heroically fought the gator even as it dragged them both underwater into a ‘death roll’.
A ‘death roll’ is a technique alligators use to subdue prey by violently twisting onto their backs before attempting to pull the victim underwater to drown them.
The report describes how Chance Allison risked his life and eventually managed to pry his girlfriend from the gator’s jaws – but it was too late to save her.
It also reveals officials later tracked down the 12-foot apex predator in the aftermath and ‘put it down’, before decapitating it and keeping its head as ‘evidence’.
Pictured: The officer reaches into his medical kit to get a tourniquet
The vicious attack unfolded as the trio took a dip in the shallows of the Econlockhatchee River (pictured above) in Little Big Econ State Forest, 20 miles north-east of Orlando
Officials later tracked down the 12-foot apex predator in the aftermath and ‘put it down’, before decapitating it and keeping its head as ‘evidence’ (stock image)
Describing how the attack unfolded, the report states: ‘While they were swimming an alligator grabbed [Clark] by her arm and began the ‘death roll’.
‘Her boyfriend Chance grabbed the alligator trying to get it to release her when it took them both underwater’.
Allison managed to get the gator to release her arm ‘for a moment’ – but it seized its jaws on her other arm instead.
‘Chance attempted to bring them both to shore when the alligator finally let go and CPR was started on shore by her boyfriend, and 911 was called,’ the report states.
The report did not state whether Allison grappled with the alligator before or after making the emergency call, but audio of the call suggests he dialed 911 while still fighting the predator.
Screaming and crying could be heard in the harrowing recording, as Allison told call handlers he was ‘still trying to get her arms away from the alligator’s mouth’.
Moments later, he told the operator that ‘both her arms, both her arms are off’, while her friend told them that one arm was ‘hanging by a thread’.
When the dispatcher asked where the other arm was, the woman replied: ‘Gone.’
Allison described the situation as ‘bad, real bad’ while urging responders to ‘please hurry… she’s losing a lot of…’ before his voice trailed off.
The gator eventually ‘went away’, Allison told the operator, before describing his girlfriend’s injuries as ‘horrible’.
Allison said he had stepped in to help, and he dragged Clark out of the water with the help of her friend.
‘We’re far off the trail, we’re off of a little launch area by the river… We need help now!’ he told the operator.
‘You may see a helicopter. If you see it, just try and flag it down if you can,’ the operator responded.
Barr Street Trailhead, the popular hiking route where the horror unfolded, is now closed until further notice.
Clark’s Facebook page shows she was a big fan of the outdoors – pictured frequently on hikes and swimming in nature.
The horrific incident marks the third alligator attack in central Florida over the last week.
Seven days before, a gator attack was reported at Rainbow River in Marion County, and a child was injured in another incident in the same county on Saturday.
Attacks on humans are rare in the US, according to the Florida Wildlife Commission, but alligators are more territorial during mating season, which lasts from April until the end of June.
