LARGO, Fla. – A possible alligator attack was responsible for the death of a 47-year-old man in the Tampa Bay area Tuesday, according to police.
Tampa ABC affiliate WFTS reports that the man, whose identity has not been released, was looking for frisbees in a lake at John S. Taylor Park in Largo when the possible attack occurred.
Largo is located just south of Clearwater in Pinellas County.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) along with a trapper responded to Taylor Lake. Residents and visitors are being asked to avoid the area and, as signs posted nearby warn, to not go swimming or near the lake at any time.
According to the FWC, Florida has not had a deadly alligator attack since 2019. Since the agency began tracking gator attacks in 1948, only 26 have turned deadly.
The 2019 attack was in Lee County, where a 31-year-old man was killed while trying to evade law enforcement by swimming across a Fort Myers retention pond, according to the agency.