MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A Miami-Dade police officer had to take a scaly suspect into custody on Tuesday afternoon in southwest Miami-Dade County.
It all started when police responded to reports of an alligator on the side of the road along Southwest 136th Street and 97th Avenue.
Police said the six-and-a-half-foot alligator went back into the water before reemerging on the grass.
Sky 10 was over the scene as officers tried to surround the gator with their patrol vehicles.
One of the officers got out and made several attempts to lasso the alligator before successfully capturing it with a tow rope and then tying it to his cruiser.
“It’s a soft rope. I was able to lasso it around its top legs, and it was in the midsection where I was able to hold it and secure it so it wouldn’t go out into the street,” said Miami-Dade police Officer Manuel Orol. “I just made a split second decision saying, ‘I gotta hold this gator, I gotta contain it,’ and that’s what I went by.”
Trappers with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission eventually arrived to the scene, where the gator tried to roll out of another lasso.
Officers then draped a towel over the gator before pinning it down and taping its snout.
The gator was then moved to the back of a truck.
Local 10 News reached out to the FWC to see what will happen to the gator but have yet to hear back.