3
Friend ~Not saved & Tatiana was played...
Posted by Mj Monk
on
1:09:00 AM
♦TATIANA♦
SF Zoo officials uncertain how tiger escaped enclosure: saying locks were in place.
San Francisco police are investigating the possibility that one of the victims in the fatal tiger mauling on Christmas Day climbed over a waist-high fence and then dangled a leg or other body part over the edge of a moat that kept the big cat away from the public, sources close to the investigation. The minimal evidence found at the scene included a shoe & blood in an area between the gate & the edge of the 25- to 30-foot-wide moat, raising questions about what role, if any, the victims might have had in accidentally helping the animal escape. The 3 victims, all young men from San Jose, were visiting the zoo together. They were all present just outside the tiger's grotto when the tiger escaped, killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr. with a savage slash to the throat, and injured the other two. The survivors, are brothers ages 19:Paul Dhaliwal and 23:Kulbir Dhaliwal. 911 call
San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo said the zoo has a response team that is armed with tranquilizers and firearms, but that the scene unfolded "so quickly that the officers found (Tatiana) first." The officers who shot the 350-pound animal were alerted through a 911 call placed by a zoo employee. Zoo officials are still unsure how the tiger escaped the enclosure. Authorities believe it initially attacked all three victims, killing Sousa. Officials believe the cat then followed blood trails to Terrace Cafe, where it cornered the other boys. They suffered deep bites and claw cuts on their heads, necks, arms and hands. The first attack happened right outside the Siberian’s enclosure - the victim died at the scene. A group of four officers came across his body when they entered the dark zoo grounds. The second victim was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe. The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana sitting next to him. The cat attacked the man again. The officers approached the tiger with their handguns. Tatiana moved in their direction and several of the officers fired, all 4 fired their .40-caliber handguns, hitting the tiger an unknown number of times -killing the animal. Only then did they see the third victim, who had also been mauled.
Now, the police search indicates that investigators believe the young men taunted the tiger, a misdemeanor. In seeking the warrant, police said they were investigating whether an unspecified felony had been committed. "As a result of this investigation, (police believe) that the tiger may have been taunted/agitated by its eventual victims," Matthews wrote in the affidavit. Police believe that "this factor contributed to the tiger escaping from its enclosure and attacking its victims," she said. An autopsy conducted by a zoo veterinarian on the Siberian tiger after police shot it to death showed that the animal had been "very determined to get out," Matthews said. Its claws were broken and splintered by clambering up the concrete moat wall, Matthews quoted the veterinarian as saying."This behavior may be consistent with a tiger that has been agitated and/or taunted," Matthews said. Police found a pine cone and a tree branch in the tiger's outdoor grotto when they searched it soon after the attack.
One of the two survivors told the father of the deceased Carlos Sousa that the three had yelled and waved at the animal while standing atop the railing of the tiger's exhibit, police said in court documents filed. Paul denied throwing anything into the enclosure or otherwise antagonizing the animal, according to an account contained in police investigators' request for a search warrant in connection with the Christmas Day attack. Police armed with the warrant and seeking evidence that the men had taunted the tiger searched the 2002 BMW belonging to Dhaliwal's 23-year-old brother, Kulbir, on Wednesday. They also reviewed the brothers' cell phones for any photos they might have taken before the tiger attacked. Police said they had recovered messages and images but apparently nothing incriminating in connection with the tiger attack. Investigators seized a small amount of marijuana as well as a partially filled bottle of Grey Goose vodka from the car, according to the inventory that police submitted from the search.
Both Dhaliwal brothers were hospitalized with head wounds after the maulings. Matthews said in the warrant application that Paul Dhaliwal's blood alcohol level had been measured after the attack at 0.16 percent, twice the legal level for drunkenness. Kulbir Dhaliwal's blood alcohol level was 0.04 percent, and Sousa's was 0.02 percent, Matthews said. All three also had marijuana in their systems, Matthews said. The drug can stay in blood for several days, but Kulbir Dhaliwal told police that the three had smoked marijuana and had each had "a couple shots of vodka" Christmas Day before leaving the brothers' home in San Jose, the affidavit said. According to the elder Sousa's account to police, Dhaliwal told him that he, his brother and the younger Sousa had been "waving their hands and yelling at the tiger" just before the animal bounded up a 12 1/2-foot wall from its dry moat and attacked them.Paul Dhaliwal - referred to in affidavit by his formal name, Amritpal - "said the three of them were standing on the railing looking at the tiger," Sousa told police. The 3-foot-tall metal railing is a few feet from the edge of the tiger moat. Dhaliwal told Sousa that "when they got down they heard a noise in the bushes, and the tiger was jumping out of the bushes" on Paul Dhaliwal, the affidavit said.
Paul Dhaliwal apparently was reluctant to talk immediately after the attack, according to Matthews' affidavit. One of the paramedics who rode with him in an ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital told police she had tried to interview him but that he had said only, "I don't want anyone to know," Matthews wrote. When the unidentified paramedic persisted, Dhaliwal told her to "just shut up," the affidavit said. He also denied having a cell phone after first asking the paramedic if she wanted his phone number and laughing, the affidavit said. Sources close to the investigation have told The San Francisco Chronicle that it appeared the brothers made a pact of silence while riding together in the ambulance to the hospital. "Don't tell them what we did," Kulbir reportedly told Paul in the ambulance, paramedics told police. Authorities also have the report of a zoo visitor who said she saw a group that included Sousa taunting the zoo's lions shortly before the tiger escaped.
Paul Dhaliwal apparently was reluctant to talk immediately after the attack, according to Matthews' affidavit. One of the paramedics who rode with him in an ambulance to San Francisco General Hospital told police she had tried to interview him but that he had said only, "I don't want anyone to know," Matthews wrote. When the unidentified paramedic persisted, Dhaliwal told her to "just shut up," the affidavit said. He also denied having a cell phone after first asking the paramedic if she wanted his phone number and laughing, the affidavit said. Sources close to the investigation have told The San Francisco Chronicle that it appeared the brothers made a pact of silence while riding together in the ambulance to the hospital. "Don't tell them what we did," Kulbir reportedly told Paul in the ambulance, paramedics told police. Authorities also have the report of a zoo visitor who said she saw a group that included Sousa taunting the zoo's lions shortly before the tiger escaped.
Tatiana: 4 year old siberian Tiger
The tiger: Tatiana, who was born in captivity,a female named Tatiana, was the same animal that attacked a female trainer ripping her flesh off in front of dozens of onlookers after a feeding demonstration on Dec. 22, 2006. The trainer was bitten on both arms and underwent extensive surgeries. 
The zoo’s Lion House was closed for almost nine months following that incident. An investigation of that incident by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health faulted the zoo, which beefed up the pen where big cats are kept. “This incident is totally separate and apart” from the 2006 one, Mollinedo said, adding that since the 2006 attack,Tatiana “seemed to be very well adjusted into that exhibit "There was never any consideration for putting her down -the tiger was acting like a normal tiger," Mollinedo said today. The public feedings at the Lion House resumed in September after about $250,000 in safety upgrades. last year’s attack, the zoo added customized steel mesh over the bars, built in a feeding shoot and increased the distance between the public and the cats. There were five tigers at the zoo - three Sumatrans and two Siberians. Officials initially worried that four tigers had escaped, but soon learned only Tatiana had escaped.
The zoo’s Lion House was closed for almost nine months following that incident. An investigation of that incident by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health faulted the zoo, which beefed up the pen where big cats are kept. “This incident is totally separate and apart” from the 2006 one, Mollinedo said, adding that since the 2006 attack,Tatiana “seemed to be very well adjusted into that exhibit "There was never any consideration for putting her down -the tiger was acting like a normal tiger," Mollinedo said today. The public feedings at the Lion House resumed in September after about $250,000 in safety upgrades. last year’s attack, the zoo added customized steel mesh over the bars, built in a feeding shoot and increased the distance between the public and the cats. There were five tigers at the zoo - three Sumatrans and two Siberians. Officials initially worried that four tigers had escaped, but soon learned only Tatiana had escaped.Jack Hanna, the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on nationally televised talk shows, predicted that other U.S. zoos would reassess their tiger enclosures if it turns out the tiger was able to leap out. “This is a first in this country,” Hanna said in a telephone interview Wednesday. “I’ve never heard of an individual (zoo visitor) being killed by an animal.
|
