"Ala. hunters kill 1,011-pound alligator" Associated Press August 19, 2014
CAMDEN, Ala. — A family battled a 1,000-pound alligator for more than five hours, putting several large hooks into the beast before firing a fatal shotgun blast into the gator’s head.
The result was the catch of a lifetime and a state record in Alabama.
The 15-foot alligator was hooked in a creek about 80 miles west of Montgomery early Saturday. The first attempt to weigh it destroyed a winch that state biologists typically use, so they had a backhoe lift it. It weighed 1,011.5 pounds.
It was caught by Mandy and John Stokes, brother-in-law Kevin Jenkins, and his children, 16-year-old Savannah and 14-year-old Parker.
‘‘We give all the glory to God. Ten men couldn’t have done what we did,’’ John Stokes said.
The alligator did not go down without a fight. After the family got some large hooks into it, Mandy Stokes aimed her 20-gauge shotgun at the ‘‘sweet spot’’ behind the alligator’s eyes. That was where she was told to aim during a mandatory training class for Alabama gator hunters.
She pulled the trigger, but the alligator’s head was too far beneath the water’s surface.
‘‘All it did was make this gator mad,’’ Mandy Stokes said. ‘‘Fear had taken hold at this point.’’
The alligator surged forward and towed the 17-foot boat and its five passengers across the creek at a startling speed, the hunters said. The towing continued until the boat crashed into a tree stump in the creek, sending the crew spilling on top of each other.
Eventually, Mandy Stokes got another shot.
This time, she killed the alligator.
Now please turn your gun over to authorities. Thank you.
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As much as I understand the need for humans to defend themselves from animals, it looks like this guy was minding his own business and the humans came and stirred him up.
Now for cousin crocodile:
"No new cases for arrested Alabama federal judge" Associated Press August 14, 2014
ATLANTA — The wife of a federal judge arrested this week on suspicion of hitting her told emergency dispatchers that she was being beaten and needed an ambulance.
US District Judge Mark Fuller, meanwhile, has been stripped of his case load in the Middle District of Alabama as he stands charged with misdemeanor domestic battery in a Georgia court.
In a recording of a 911 call obtained by the Associated Press, the woman who dialed authorities identified herself as Kelli Fuller and reported that she was involved in a domestic dispute at the Ritz Carlton in downtown Atlanta.
‘‘He’s beating on me. Please help me,’’ the woman tells the 911 dispatcher before saying that she needed paramedics.
The recording was released to AP on Wednesday in response to an open records request. Atlanta police arrested Fuller, 55, early Sunday. He was released from the Fulton County Jail on a $5,000 bond after a hearing Monday. Best known for sentencing the former Alabama governor, Don Siegelman, to prison after a public corruption conviction, Fuller must appear in court again Aug. 22.
Slammed him down, did he?
About a minute into the call, as the initial dispatcher patches an ambulance dispatcher into the call, the woman identified as Kelli Fuller, 41, can be heard saying, “I hate you, I hate you.’’ A male voice responds: ‘‘I hate you too’’ followed by dull noises in the background.
The woman’s voice can be heard loudly repeating: ‘‘Help me, please. Please help me. He’s beating on me.’’
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