Social media posts show that William Chapman spent the final hours before his death at a Yorkshire zoo visiting the gym and posing with a crossbow before making the journey that ended in tragedy.

Chapman, 24, had been classed as vulnerable and had a history of “significant” mental health problems. On Saturday afternoon, he entered the tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, near Doncaster.

The former child star was seen dancing to music through his headphones and pacing along a walkway shortly before climbing into the enclosure. Visitors described him as appearing “not attached to reality”.

Footage recorded by Chapman appears to show him slowly moving towards one of the park’s two rare Amur tigers. The five-year-old male tiger was named Altai.

Witnesses said the big cat pawed at Chapman before clamping its jaws around his neck minutes later.

Emergency services were called to the park at 1.35pm, but Chapman was pronounced dead. An inquest into his death is due to open at Doncaster Coroner’s Court on Thursday morning.

John Minion, a friend of the park’s owner, said he had been left “devastated” by the incident and was “first on the scene”.

After this newspaper identified Chapman on Tuesday, his family said they were heartbroken by the loss of their “amazing son”. They described him as “a bright, warm and engaging young man whom his family dearly loved – and William loved them back”.

The family said Chapman had been prescribed “strong medication” for his poor mental health, adding that “it will be for the coroner to decide what part this played in his death”.

A now-deleted Instagram account offers an insight into how Chapman spent the day before visitors made desperate attempts to save him.

Images uploaded on the day of his death showed Chapman at a gym and inside a flat in Doncaster, where he posed with a crossbow.

The first image showed Chapman outside a convenience store holding a can of Jack Daniel’s mixed with Coca-Cola Zero.

A second picture featured a soldier figurine alongside the words “SAS”, a heart emoji and the flag of Uganda.

In the hours before the incident at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, the former child actor shared photographs of the property where he was staying, tagging the location as “Doncaster”. One image showed a replica of an ancient Greek war helmet resting on his pillow.

Another photograph showed a living room and sofa, with Chapman’s shoes and grey tracksuit bottoms visible in the frame.

A crossbow and several darts could be seen in one corner, alongside two backpacks, a computer monitor and laundry. The image appeared to have been taken overnight or during the early hours, with darkness visible outside.

The account suggests Mr Chapman later spent time at a swimming pool and the gym in the hours before his death: a selfie taken in blue swimming trunks – which can also be seen in the same laundry in his living room – shows him wearing a blue wristband. 

He is then seen posing at the gym in grey tracksuit bottoms and a black sweater, the same outfit he would be seen wearing at the wildlife park hours later.

A final photograph, thought to be one of the last taken of Mr Chapman, shows him sitting on a kitchen worktop while posing with a copy of the Bible in one hand and a crossbow across his lap.

A crossbow dart is between his teeth, and tape emblazoned with the words ‘150lb Recurve Crossbow’ appears to be stuck to the cupboard beneath him.

In the background, a card featuring the word ‘Grandson’ is on display. The card, matched by the Mail to one sold by Amazon, wishes him a happy birthday, adding the message: ‘Believe there’s nothing you can’t do, there’s only one amazing you.’

Other images from his social media, posted around the same time, may have been taken earlier. These include a photo of Mr Chapman dressed all in grey outside the Pantheon in Paris, an image possibly alluding to a famous German influencer, and a picture seemingly taken outside a church. 

It’s unknown exactly when Mr Chapman arrived at Yorkshire Wildlife Park, but it appears to be in the hours after these final photographs were taken.

Guests at the park described how, after arriving at the Land of the Tigers attraction, he danced up and down the 300m walkway above the enclosure where Amur tigers Altai and Tschuna live, listening to music on his AirPods.

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Park visitor Del Taylor yesterday described how Mr Chapman had approached her while on the walkway and asked her to take photos of him with one of the tigers in the background.

‘He was so happy,’ she said in a since-deleted TikTok video in which she appealed for cruel trolls to stop making jokes about the tragedy. ‘And then he’s come and placed himself next to us and he’s passed me his phone, and he’s asked me for his photo, and if you’d have seen him, without saying too much, you would understand why I’m saying what I’m saying.’ 

A video clip caught the moment, which took place just before he entered the enclosure.

Mr Chapman can be heard saying: ‘Excuse me, can you grab a shot of myself with the tiger?’ while Altai lies in the background under a shaded tree, playing with a fallen branch.

A woman, believed to be Ms Taylor, agrees and takes a photo, before he asks three times for ‘one more’ picture and then says: ‘Thank you, lady.’

Just moments later, Mr Chapman then began climbing over the walkway in a bid to enter the pen.

A heroic older woman desperately tried to pull the 24-year-old back down, but witnesses said she simply ‘wasn’t strong enough’.

Mr Chapman then jumped into the enclosure below.

A final video clip shared on Instagram just minutes before emergency services were scrambled to the scene showed him filming tiger Altai, who was resting on a wooden raised platform within the enclosure, as he slowly walked towards him. 

In the background, he can be heard breathing heavily as shocked onlookers cry out ‘oh my God’. 

When the tiger attacked, Mr Chapman, a former pupil of the Jackie Palmer Stage School in High Wycombe, screamed ‘stop’ several times and appeared to make a gesture for ‘bad’ in Makaton – a language system generally used by individuals who struggle to communicate. He also told the 200kg cat to ‘stop being naughty’. 

Distressing footage shows how Altai appeared to paw at and toy with Mr Chapman, who was seen sitting and lying on the ground of the enclosure.

Witnesses said the tiger then jumped on to Mr Chapman’s neck.

Visitors were rapidly evacuated and emergency services, including an air ambulance, rushed to the scene, but Mr Chapman was confirmed to have died.

A friend of Mr Minion, who is a director at the attraction along with his wife Kate, said yesterday: ‘He is obviously devastated and was first at the scene. My heart goes out to him.’  

Zookeepers were said to have done ‘everything they could’ to drive tiger Altai off, firing five loud acoustic gun blasts in attempts to scare him. 

Two ambulances and a helicopter rushed to the park at 1.35pm, with a ‘black screen’ erected around the enclosure as lifesaving treatment was attempted.

In a statement released last night, Mr Chapman’s family said they are ‘utterly devastated by their loss and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened.

‘The publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time. We ask people to stop doing this.

‘The family are hopeful that the relevant authorities will do their utmost to get to the bottom of why our amazing son did what he did.’

As well as being mocked by trolls online, footage of the attack was also posted by US President Donald Trump last night, who wrote: ‘Don’t ever mess with nature!’

On Wednesday morning, he also shared an AI-generated video of himself wrestling with and ultimately embracing the tiger, while The Lion Sleeps Tonight plays in the background. 

Mr Chapman’s family added: ‘William was a bright, warm and engaging young man whom his family dearly loved – and William loved them back.

‘Sadly, William suffered from significant mental illness over a number of years and was consequently prescribed strong medication.

‘It will be for the coroner to decide what part this played in his death. We would ask everybody to respect that process.’

Yorkshire Wildlife Park, which remains closed, confirmed that Altai will not be euthanised in the wake of the incident.

The licensing authority for Yorkshire Wildlife Park, City of Doncaster Council, has now launched a health and safety investigation into the man’s death. 

Dan Swaine, executive director of place at City of Doncaster Council, said: ‘As the relevant licensing authority for the Yorkshire Wildlife Park, I can confirm that, in line with our statutory duties, the council has launched a health and safety investigation.

‘We are also working with multiple agencies, including the police and health agencies, and are supporting the Yorkshire Wildlife Park in response to the incident.

‘At this time, we won’t be commenting further on the individual or the investigation and we ask that the privacy of those involved is respected at this difficult time.’

As a child, Mr Chapman appeared in the ITV production May Contain Nuts alongside Shirley Henderson and Darren Boyd.

He also played Edward Jenner in the BBC series True Stories.

Discarded syringes, drug paraphernalia and people sleeping along sidewalks formed a grim backdrop as Republican gubernatorial candidate Steve Hilton brought his campaign message to Los Angeles’ MacArthur Park, a neighborhood long associated with the city’s homelessness and drug crises.

During Tuesday’s visit, Hilton walked through the park and nearby alleys while criticizing taxpayer-funded nonprofits that provide clean needles and other drug-use supplies through harm-reduction programs.

“This is your tax money at work… Free crack pipes and needles being handed out to drug addicts. CEOs of these so-called ‘nonprofits’ making millions a year. The smell, the squalor, the inhumanity. All of it is funded by you,” Hilton said.

Hilton contended that such initiatives fail to address the root of addiction and instead allow drug use to continue.

“They call it ‘harm reduction,’ but all it does is keep people addicted. I’ll end this madness,” he said.

The difficult conditions around MacArthur Park were visible throughout the candidate’s tour.

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Video and photos from the visit showed Hilton passing a woman asleep in an alley and speaking with reporters as another person lay on the sidewalk near the park’s entrance.

Hilton has previously said he witnessed “crack pipes, injection drug use, and people folded over on fentanyl in the middle of a sunny day.”

One video attracted additional attention online after viewers noticed a homeless man moving through the background with his pants around his knees while Hilton described the area’s problems.

Hilton’s campaign comes against a challenging political backdrop for Republicans in Los Angeles. The City Council has 15 seats and no publicly identified Republican members, and the city has not elected a Republican mayor since Richard Riordan’s victory in 1993.

California’s most recent Republican governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, left office in January 2011.

Among the conditions Hilton pointed to were overflowing trash and human feces, which he described as both a “moral failure” and a “taxpayer-funded drug market.”

California voters will decide between Democrat Xavier Becerra and Hilton in the Nov. 3 election.

Donald Trump has faced fierce criticism after sharing a “tasteless” AI-generated video that mocked the fatal tiger attack at a Yorkshire wildlife park. In the digitally created clip, the US president is shown grappling with the animal before subduing and taming it.

William Chapman, a 24-year-old British man, died on Saturday after entering a tiger enclosure at Yorkshire Wildlife Park. He was attacked by Atai, a Siberian tiger.

Video of the fatal incident has since spread online, despite appeals from Mr Chapman’s family for the public to stop circulating footage of the attack.

The family’s request came before Mr Trump posted the AI parody on his Truth Social account on Tuesday. The video depicts the tiger lunging at a digital version of the president, who then drives it away before supposedly taming the animal and becoming its friend, accompanied by the song “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”.

The parody appeared shortly after Mr Trump had shared genuine footage of the deadly incident, alongside the message: “Don’t ever mess with nature! President DJT!”

Broadcaster Piers Morgan condemned the post on X, describing it as “appallingly tasteless” and telling the president: “Delete it.”

In the days before his death, Mr Chapman had uploaded a series of photographs and videos to social media, including material connected to his decision to enter the tiger’s enclosure on Saturday.

One disturbing video appears to show him climbing into the pen and moving towards a solitary tiger resting on a raised wooden platform. Within minutes, the animal attacked him, killing him.

Heavy breathing can be heard in the background of the recording as stunned visitors react, with some shouting: “Oh my God.”

His Instagram account also featured a gym selfie posted just hours before he shared the video showing himself gradually walking towards the big cat.

A separate image showed Mr Chapman holding a Bible and a crossbow while wearing the same clothing seen in the footage from Yorkshire Wildlife Park.

Witnesses said Mr Chapman, whom police described as vulnerable, had been dancing to music at the park and asked another visitor to photograph him with the tiger visible behind him.

He subsequently started to climb into the enclosure. One woman reportedly tried urgently to restrain him, but he fell roughly 12 feet to the ground.

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As the tiger attacked, Mr Chapman was heard repeatedly shouting “stop”. He also appeared to make the Makaton sign for “bad”, using a communication system commonly used by people who have difficulty speaking or communicating.

The terrifying incident took place only minutes before emergency services were contacted at 1.35pm.

In a statement issued through police on Tuesday, Mr Chapman’s family said: “William was a bright, warm and engaging young man whom his family dearly loved – and William loved them back.

“Sadly, William had experienced significant mental illness for several years and had consequently been prescribed strong medication.

‘It will be for the coroner to decide what part this played in his death. We would ask everybody to respect that process.’

‘The family are utterly devastated by their loss and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened,’ they said.

‘The publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time. We ask people to stop doing this.

‘The family are hopeful that the relevant authorities will do their utmost to get to the bottom of why our amazing son did what he did.’

It emerged on Tuesday night that Mr Chapman was a ‘passionate’ child actor who appeared in an ITV comedy drama.

In 2009 he was in the two-part ITV comedy May Contain Nuts alongside Shirley Henderson – who is best known for playing Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films.

Mr Chapman played Alfie Chaplin, the son of Henderson’s character Alice Chaplin, who masqueraded as her 11-year-old daughter to take a school entrance exam in the acclaimed drama which also starred Darren Boyd.

He also appeared in the BBC series True Stories about the lives of historical people in 2012, when he portrayed the English physician and scientist Edward Jenner as a boy before he became the father of immunology and the pioneer of vaccination.

Mr Chapman had a further role in the ITV period drama series Breathless, which aired in 2013 and featured hospital staff secretly performing illegal abortions in the 1960s, according to a blog post written in 2014 by his mother.

But his acting work apparently largely stopped during his adolescence, and he appeared to not have had any screen work for many years before his death.

Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and Republican challenger Bruce Blakeman met Tuesday night for the lone debate of their closely watched New York gubernatorial race. The candidates sparred over affordability, immigration, President Donald Trump and New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani.

Hochul has maintained a steady lead in polling with the Nov. 3 election less than three weeks away. Blakeman, the Nassau County executive, is trying to narrow that deficit after Hochul defeated Lee Zeldin by only 6.5 percentage points four years ago.

Below, The Post’s panel of experts weighs in on the night’s biggest moments and declares who came out ahead. Their comments have been lightly edited for clarity.

O’Brien O.B. Murray, Campaign strategist

Winner: Blakeman.

“Hochul demonstrated why she has been reluctant to debate: She appeared out of practice. From her opening statement, she looked like a deer in the headlights and remained on the defensive for most of the night.

“Following Republican Saritha Komatireddy’s impressive showing in the attorney general debate, Blakeman needed to deliver. He did, and the performance should boost his fundraising while energizing his supporters.”

Best moment for Blakeman: “The opening stretch. He controlled the first 15 minutes by focusing on immigration and New York’s soaring energy costs — issues likely to resonate with viewers before some may have tuned out.”

Worst moment for Blakeman: “He tried to keep the conversation on expensive utility bills and interrupted the moderator, who was asking Hochul whether pressure from progressive allies could lead her to raise income taxes.”

Best moment for Hochul: “Whenever she brought up Trump. She was reinforcing her central argument that Blakeman is essentially a stand-in for the president.”

Worst moment for Hochul: “Again, whenever she invoked Trump. She needed to offer voters more reasons to support her rather than simply reasons to oppose Blakeman.”

Liz Benjamin, Marathon Strategies operative and ex-Spectrum News political anchor

Winner: Tie.

“Neither candidate committed a fatal mistake, but neither delivered a knockout performance, either. Both had their share of awkward moments, verbal slips and pointed one-liners. Some connected with the audience; others fell flat.”

Best moment for Blakeman: “He put Hochul on the defensive over her handling of the corrections officers’ strike. The attack was politically logical, given that the union has endorsed him. He also scored points by highlighting Hochul’s position on Cornell’s board while the university faces scrutiny over how its leadership handled an alleged gang rape that drew national attention.”

Worst moment for Blakeman: “His statement that ‘Donald Trump is my friend’ is almost certain to appear in a future attack ad. He tried to soften it by pointing to policy disagreements with Trump, including abortion, but the initial line had already done its damage.”

Best moment for Hochul: “She deftly sidestepped Blakeman’s effort to link her to Mayor Mamdani, who performs poorly in polling outside New York City and among Jewish voters. Instead, she pointed to Jewish NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch, whom Mamdani himself has resisted calls from the left to remove.”

Worst moment for Hochul: “By the fifth or sixth reference to Trump — a predictable strategy given the president’s unpopularity in his home state — the repetition began to validate Blakeman’s argument that Trump is the only subject she can discuss.”

Alyssa Cass, Democratic strategist and partner at Slingshot Strategies

Winner: Hochul.

“Blakeman was making an argument that might work in a midterm election, but not necessarily in this race. He appeared trapped in a 2022 political framework, while Hochul was focused on the issues shaping the campaign now.”

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Best moment for Blakeman: “Hochul responded to the energy-cost question by blaming Trump, the war in Iran and stalled federal approvals. Blakeman answered with his sharpest line of the evening: ‘Kathy, Donald Trump didn’t raise utility rates 48 times. You did. Donald Trump didn’t increase our utility bills by 50% since you became governor … You gave $150 back to people in a rebate in an election year … when you’ve raised the average bill $4,000 a year.’”

Worst moment for Blakeman: “Whenever he stressed that he differed substantially from Trump, only to cite the same two policy issues.”

Best moment for Hochul: “She make Blakeman look really small and lame when she dismissed his endorsements with an effortless ‘You’ve got two votes, good for you.’”

Worst moment for Hochul: “She dodged whether she’d sign the bill expanding the data center moratorium, and Blakeman jumped on it: ‘You say what you want to do, and then you don’t do it.’”

Rob Ryan, Republican strategist, aide to former Gov. George Pataki

Winner: Blakeman

“Hochul’s performance was better Tuesday night than it was four years ago when she debated Lee Zeldin. For the most part she did well, though Blakeman managed her to flustered her a couple of times.

“At points, the governor showed us her snarky side with swipes at Blakeman which came off as mean-spirited. She seems to have a natural talent for looking straight at the camera while casually twisting the truth.

“Blakeman was confident and well-prepared. He did a great job at hitting Hochul on a litany of vulnerable issues, including repeatedly asking her if she was a board member at Cornell and why she hadn’t called the Gorman family after their daughter was murdered by an illegal alien. 

“He definitely came off as the candidate who supports law enforcement. He knew his issues, how to couch them and how to smoothly pivot when needed.”

Best moment for Blakeman: “When he spoke about supporting law enforcement and federal and state laws.”

Worst moment for Blakeman: “The exchange about Nassau County’s auxiliary police force.”

Best moment for Hochul: “When she described the ‘special deputies’ team as Blakeman’s private militia.”

Worst Moment for Hochul: “When she was called out for squandering four years without crafting policy for AI data centers, then kicking the can down the road with a moratorium.”

Shawn Donahue,  Assistant political science professor, University at Buffalo

Winner: Tie

“Both of them came prepared with their lines that they wanted to use and issues they wanted to hit on. They had their good moments and stumbles, but it doesn’t feel like this debate will be that memorable. I don’t think I can say that either person won the debate. If you came in predisposed to vote for Hochul, you probably were cheering her on, and vice versa with Blakeman.”

Best moment for Blakeman: “When he tried to separate himself from Trump by pointing out that he was pro-choice on abortion.”

Worst moment for Blakeman: “Having to defend his statements about Trump. Calling him the ‘best president of my lifetime’ probably does not go over well in New York, though he tried to couch it by saying Eisenhower actually was, but Trump still has two more years to go.

Best moment for Hochul: “When Blakeman was making several campaign promises as far as lowering costs and she came back with ‘just like Donald Trump.’”

Worst moment for Hochul: “She was caught off guard a bit by Blakeman noting she was on the Cornell board, and only belatedly recovered by saying she was just an ex officio member.”