Local News

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) ― The big cat exhibit at the San Francisco Zoo was cordoned off as a crime scene Wednesday as investigators tried to determine whether a tiger that killed a visitor escaped on its own, received inadvertent help or had provocation, the city's police chief said.

"We're not certain whether this incident occurred as a result of human action or whether this was an incident where the animal was able to get out of the grotto," said Police Chief heather Fong.

Fong said officers were gathering witness accounts and physical evidence from the tiger's enclosure, which is surrounded by a 20-foot-tall moat and an 18-foot tall wall. She would not say if the investigation had yielded any clues about how the animal got loose before it went on the rampage that also left two men severely injured.

The 300-pound tiger, a 4-year-old female named Tatiana, was the same animal that ripped the flesh off a zookeeper's arm just before Christmas 2006. An investigation by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health faulted the zoo, which beefed up the Lion House where big cats are kept.

Police officers shot and killed the tiger when they spotted it near one of the injured men late Tuesday afternoon. Zoo director Manual Mollinedo said he did not consider euthanizing Tatiana after the 2006 incident, which occurred when the keeper was feeding the tiger through the bars surrounding the enclosure.

"The tiger was acting like a normal tiger does," Mollinedo said about the earlier mauling.

Police spent the morning searching for possible additional victims at the zoo, but found none. They wanted to conduct a thorough sweep of the grounds because it was unclear how long the tiger had been loose before she was killed by officers.

The three victims were attacked around closing time Tuesday on the east end of the 125-acre zoo grounds near Ocean Beach, according to Sgt. Neville Gittens, a police spokesman. The four officers who hunted down and shot the 300-pound animal were alerted through a 911 call placed by a zoo employee.

The San Francisco medical examiner identified the person who was fatally mauled as 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr., of San Jose. The cause of death was pending.

The two injured men, ages 19 and 23, were upgraded to stable condition Wednesday at San Francisco General Hospital after undergoing surgery to have their wounds cleaned and closed, said surgeon Rochelle Dicker. They suffered deep bites and claw cuts on their heads, necks, arms and hands.

Dicker said they were shaken up emotionally and would remain hospitalized for the day, but that because of their youth they would make a full recovery.

The zoo's director of animal care and conservation, Robert Jenkins, could not explain how Tatiana escaped. The tiger's enclosure is surrounded by a 15-foot-wide moat and 20-foot-high walls, and the big cat did not leave through an open door, he said.

"There was no way out through the door," Jenkins said. "The animal appears to have climbed or otherwise leaped out of the enclosure."

Jack Hanna, the director emeritus of the Columbus Zoo and a frequent guest on nationally televised talk shows, predicted that other U.S. zoos would reassess their tiger enclosures if it turns out the tiger was able to leap out.

"This is a first in this country," Hanna said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "I've never heard of an individual (zoo visitor) being killed by an animal. It's much safer going to a zoo than getting in your car and going down the driveway."

Hanna said he wasn't familiar with the San Francisco Zoo's tiger exhibit or with Tatiana, but he said that since zoo tigers are well fed, it's unlikely the animal was looking for food.

Hanna said he wanted to know if anyone was teasing the tiger. "Were they taunting the animal? I don't know that right now," he said. "Were they throwing things that were making it angry?"

The first attack happened right outside the Siberian's enclosure—the victim died at the scene. A group of four officers came across his body when they entered the dark zoo grounds, Gittens said.

The second victim was about 300 yards away, in front of the Terrace Cafe. The man was sitting on the ground, blood running from gashes in his head and Tatiana sitting next to him.

The cat attacked the man again, Mannina said. The officers approached the tiger with their handguns. Tatiana moved in their direction and several of the officers fired, killing the animal.

Only then did they see the third victim, who had also been mauled.

Although no new visitors were let in after 5 p.m. Tuesday, the grounds had not been not scheduled to close until an hour later, and 20 to 25 people were still in the zoo when the attacks happened, zoo officials said. Employees and visitors were told to take shelter when zoo officials learned of the attacks.

The zoo does have a response team that is authorized to shoot animals. But zoo officials and police described the initial moments after the attacks were discovered as "chaotic."

There were five tigers at the zoo—three Sumatrans and two Siberians. Officials initially worried that four of them had gotten out, but soon learned it was only Tatiana, Gittens said.

Although the entire zoo was closed to the public on Wednesday, officials expected to reopen all but the big cat exhibit on Thursday, according to a zoo spokeswoman.

On Dec. 22, 2006, Tatiana reached through the bars of her cage and grabbed a keeper, Lori Komejan, biting and mauling one of her arms and causing deep lacerations, according to court records. The zoo's Lion House was temporarily closed during an investigation.

California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health blamed the zoo for the assault and imposed an $18,000 penalty. A medical claim filed against the city by Komejan was denied.

After last year's attack, the zoo added customized steel mesh over the bars, built in a feeding shoot and increased the distance between the public and the cats.

Tatiana arrived at the San Francisco Zoo from the Denver Zoo a few years ago, with zoo officials hoping she would mate with a male tiger. Siberian tigers are classified as endangered and there are more than 600 of the animals living in captivity worldwide.

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