Deputies in Florida have fatally shot a man only minutes after he survived an apparent alligator attack in a bizarre series of events.
Timothy Schulz, 42, was spotted acting erratically by a convenience store clerk in Polk County, Florida on Monday. The clerk told authorities the man acting “bizarre,” adding he was “shaking.”
Authorities started searching for Schulz just before 6 a.m., but after 40 minutes he could not be located. An hour later Schulz was spotted swimming in an alligator-infested lake by nearby residents. “There’s an alligator near him, he must be drunk or high or something,” one witness alleged, according to Judd.
Another witness tried to throw the man a life preserver, but he refused it. A third witness said Schulz “growled” at them as they tried to assist him after they noticed an alligator was close to him. Schulz walked out of the lake with what looked like an alligator bite, then started wielding a pair of garden shears he had allegedly stolen from the yard of a nearby house.
Judd said the man also used a brick to try and break into a resident’s truck. After running at Polk County deputies with the garden shears, Schulz was tasered twice but without effect, as he continued to charge at the deputies.
Schulz then tried to steal a deputy’s rifle after climbing into the passenger side of a patrol vehicle, Judd added. A trainee deputy and his trainer shot Schulz multiple times, fatally wounding him.
“They shot him enough to stop the threat,” Judd said. “Quite frankly, his conduct was outrageous, it was bizarre. He swam a long way across this lake. The fact that he was bitten by an alligator, significantly, and still continued his rampage was shocking. But if you’re on enough meth, the person you see is not the person that’s attacking.”
The death is under internal investigation.
Judd said Schulz had a lengthy criminal history that included several arrests for methamphetamine. He was released from jail on May 20 this year.
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