WARNING GRAPHIC CONTENT: An 85-year-old Florida woman was attacked and killed by an alligator while walking her dog. The heartbroken family of an 85-year-old woman who was dragged into a pond and killed by a deadly alligator is suing the retirement village where the horrific incident took place, claiming the owners knew the gator was living in the water and failed to remove it.
Gloria Serge was near a retention pond behind her house in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Feb. 20, 2023, when the 10-foot-long beast crawled out of the water and first tried to attack her dog, according to chilling CCTV footage. The surveillance footage shows the reptile swimming in a direct path toward Serge’s dog before it rises out of the water and scampers up the embankment in pursuit of the animal.
The octogenarian was taken to the ground with the alligator biting her feet, and then she was dragged into the water. Bill Serge, the victim’s son, announced the lawsuit against Spanish Lakes Fairways at a news conference with his attorneys on Friday. “One year ago, I received a phone call that every son dreads,” he said. “I never could have imagined the agonizing way that my mother spent the last moments of her life. No child should have to bury their mom under such horrible circumstances. This was a tragedy that was 100% preventable.”
The suit claims Wynne Building Corporation, which owns and operates Spanish Lakes Fairways, was negligent in that the owners knew the gator was lurking in the pond and failed to remove it or put up warning signs to notify people it was there. Attorneys from Lesser, Lesser, Landy & Smith, PLLC, a West Palm Beach firm, also claimed the owners could have prevented the tragedy by enforcing rules on feeding wildlife.
“If Spanish Lakes had taken any, any measure of common sense, of reasonable action, Gloria would be here today with her five children, her fifteen grandchildren, and her nine great-grandchildren,” said attorney Gary Lesser.
The attorneys also highlighted the strict rules of the community that forbid walking dogs in the streets, forcing Gloria Serge to walk her canines near the lake. The lawsuit alleges that she had received a violation and eviction warning for walking her small dog in the front yard of her house.
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) captured and killed the 10-foot-long alligator responsible for the attack. Following the incident, the Spanish Lakes Fairways homeowners association removed three more alligators from the neighborhood. Alligator attacks against people are considered rare, with the FWC stating that they typically do not attack unless provoked.
Florida, known for its alligator population, has a healthy and stable population of about 1.3 million alligators. From 1948 to 2022, there have been 453 unprovoked bite incidents in Florida, resulting in 26 human fatalities.
The tragic death of Gloria Serge has brought attention to the need for better measures to prevent such incidents and has sparked a lawsuit against the retirement village. The family believes that the tragedy could have been avoided if the owners had taken appropriate action.
