Jan 7, 2008 10:32 pm US/Pacific
Mourners Pay Respects To SF Tiger Attack Victim
SAN JOSE (AP) ―
The mother of a teenager mauled to death by an escaped tiger says she wants people to remember him for the way he lived, not for the frightful way he died.
"My son was a wonderful kid," said Marilza Sousa.
Sousa and other family members and friends made a somber pilgrimage to a San Jose funeral home Monday where they paid their respects to 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr.
Sousa died Christmas Day after a 350-pound Siberian broke out of the big-cat enclosure, also injuring Sousa's two friends.
Authorities are investigating what led up to the attack.
Zoo officials say the tiger probably leaped or climbed out of an empty moat that had a 12 ½ foot wall -- 4 feet shorter than the recommended minimum for U.S. zoos.
Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo has said that something must have provoked the tiger to leap out of the exhibit. But Mark Geragos, an attorney for the survivors—brothers Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, and Paul Dhaliwal, 19 -- has said none of the victims taunted the tiger.
Sousa said she would like to hear from the brothers and get their account of what happened. She said she's disappointed not to have gotten a call yet, but understands they may still be in shock from the attack and said they are planning to attend her son's funeral.
At the funeral home, guests were greeted by poster boards covered with snapshots of a smiling Carlos Sousa from infanthood up. The teenager's father, Carlos Sousa Sr., sat silently in a front row near where the body lay in a white-velvet lined coffin covered with a mass of pale flowers.
Police and family members have said that Sousa and Paul Dhaliwal tried to distract the tiger after it first went after Kulbir Dhaliwal. Marilza Sousa said she considers her son a hero.
Interviewed outside the viewing chapel, Marilza Sousa described her son as a "dancing, happy person" who would always greet her at the front door with a hug and a kiss.
"That's the way I want everybody to remember him," she said, "the way he was—a happy kid."
Later Monday, hundreds of people huddled together in mourning at the Five Wounds Portuguese National Church in San Jose for an evening funeral mass for Sousa, who was remembered an avid Oakland Raiders fan deeply tied to his family.
"He loved celebrating birthdays and sleeping close to his father to feel protected," said Tony Silveira, a friend of the family who gave a welcome address in Portuguese.
Cold air blew in from outside as Portuguese and Spanish prayers reverberated off the walls. Sousa's casket, draped in white cloth in front of two Christmas trees, was closed.
At the end of the service, a local band played a funeral march as Sousa's mother and father followed the casket to a hearse waiting outside.
"We don't know everything that happened on the day Carlos died," said family friend James Geagan. "But we know more important things—that Carlos was a child who we loved and who loved us."
Sousa will be buried Tuesday.
(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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