4:04pm ET
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Orange County Sheriff's Office have released their final report surrounding the gator attack that killed 2-year old Lane Graves.
The June attack happened on the beach of the Grand Floridian Resort, where the gator reportedly took Graves' into the lagoon; drowning him.
This new report highlights everything that happened at the Seven Sea Lagoon. It also indicates that the two year old was playing in the water.. that was only about ankle-high when standing up.
Authorities Lane was bending down when the alligator grabbed him by the head... puncturing his skull and neck. Matt Graves, the father, then tried to open the gator's mouth.. but the gator got away and went under water. The father suffered from a leg injury, but no one can confirm if there was a second gator.
The report concludes with authorities determining the gator crushed the two-year-olds skull with its bite-- and Graves drowned following the attack. But officials are unsure if the correct gator was captured following the incident: "Trappers killed six gators capable of the attack but were unable to make a DNA match to identify the offending animal positively. The state is confident, however, that one of the two females caught close to the attack location was the culprit since alligator behavior typically would be to stay close to the area of a lost food source."
Final statement of report:
"I collaborated with FWC alligator subject matter expert Jason Waller to determine how to classify this attack. We classify this as a predatory attack with a high degree of certainty due to the totality of the circumstances. We find that the behaviors of the animal at the time of the attack are indicative of predatory intent. There is nothing to suggest provocation on the part of the victim or defensive action by the animal such as a bite and release. Alligators routinely hunt and kill prey along the shore and drag it into the water. The victim’s small size and position (bent down) at the time of the attack would appear to the alligator similar to many of its normal food sources. Statistics show that humans are very rarely the victims of predatory bites; however, nothing precludes them from being viewed as such to an alligator of this size in comparison to a small person."
Based on the thorough investigation, deputies say there was an anonymous source claims to witness people feeding gators at a different time-- no correlation can be made between that that incident and this attack. Alligator feeding undergoing a separate investigation at this time.
Since the incident, Walt Disney World has gone to great measures to make prevent another tragedy like this again. All of resort beaches surrounding the Seven Sea Lagoon now have a barrier of rocks between sand and the water. Also, alligator and wildlife signs have been put up around virtually every body of water on property. Disney also suspended some in-the-park references, as central Florida mourned the loss of the Nebraska native killed on vacation.