After being bitten by an alligator, Timothy Schulz, a 42-year-old man in Florida, was killed by police after threatening officers with shears and attempting to break into their squad car. According to authorities, Schulz, bleeding and frenzied, was under the influence of methamphetamine. The officers tried to stop him with a Taser, but opened fire when he tried to take a weapon from them. None of them sustained injuries. The sheriff described the incident as “an out-of-control situation.”
As the Guardian reported, deputies had previously been called to a nearby convenience store by a worker who reported a man acting strangely, shaking and asking to call his son, but the man was missing when members of the sheriff’s office arrived.
Sheriff Grady Judd told the media, “The fact that the man had been bitten by an alligator, significantly, and still continued his rampage is shocking.” He went on to point out that when a person is under the influence of methamphetamine, he is not himself and often does not have full awareness of what he is doing.
After the incident, the sheriff’s office said that, according to their research, Schulz had a history of drug-related arrests and had been released May 20 from a prison sentence for methamphetamine possession.
