ST. LUCIE COUNTY — Two Vero Beach residents were arrested early Wednesday after one admitted shooting an alligator and another was spotted putting pink-colored meat in a cabinet, according to recently released arrest affidavits.

Ernest Ray Hublur, 18, reportedly was shining a light on Alderman ranch off Shinn Road about 12:15 a.m. Wednesday. (more…)

OKEECHOBEE COUNTY — When an 11-foot alligator leaped out of the water and clamped down on his arm and chest, Antonio Prado was caught by surprise.

Prado was dragged under the water by the alligator, which bit him on his arm and chest.

“I had been there (to Nubbin Slough on Lake Okeechobee) casting my (fishing) net many times,” said Prado, 47, from his room in Lawnwood Regional Medical Center & Heart Institute in Fort Pierce. “I had seen alligators and they never bothered me.”

Prado of Okeechobee, is a truck driver. On his day off Monday, he went fishing with his son, Jonatan, 24, in Nubbin Slough.

“(The alligator) was on the side of the water, when I went in. He went in too,” Prado said. “I didn’t think about it because others had done the same. I threw in my net. When I pulled it up, he came out of the water. He pulled me under the water and we rolled around twice before I could get to the surface to call for help.”
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Alligator believed to have attacked fisherman on Monday. Photo provided by FWC.

The 47-year-old Okeechobee County man was casting his net in the popular fishing spot in the northeast side of Lake Okeechobee when an alligator yanked him under water on Monday afternoon.

The gator bit him across the arm and chest before Prado’s 24-year-old son, Jonatan, rushed to his aid, hitting the 11-foot beast with a pair of pliers, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission officials. The hit distracted the gator, who released Prado just before his son was able to drag him back to shore.

Prado was flown to Lawnwood Regional Medical Center in Fort Pierce, where he underwent emergency surgery, according to FWC spokeswoman Gabriella Ferraro. He survived the attack with no loss of extremities.

After the attack, a trapper called to the scene by FWC caught the gator and shot him.

The gator – likely used to people and the fish tossed behind as scraps — was still in the area of the attack when the trapper arrived, Ferraro said.

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