Woman Killed After Petting an Alligator

Said 'I guess I won't do this again' before getting pulled back down by gator
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted May 6, 2020 8:03 AM CDT
After Glass of Wine, Woman Tried to Pet Alligator: Cops
An alligator prowls Everglades National Park in search of a meal on Oct. 22, 2019.   (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty)

A woman attacked and killed by an alligator in a gated community in South Carolina was visiting the homeowner to do her nails and was trying to touch the animal when it grabbed her, reports the AP. After briefly getting away from the alligator Friday, Cynthia Covert, 58, stood in waist deep water in a Kiawah Island pond and said "I guess I won't do this again," but the alligator grabbed her in its jaws again and took her under, according to a police report released Tuesday. Deputies and firefighters looked for Covert for 10 minutes before her body surfaced. When the alligator surfaced again, a deputy shot the animal in the head with his 9mm handgun, the police report said. By that time, Covert had died of drowning with a severely damaged leg.

Covert came to Kiawah Island, a gated community southeast of Charleston, to give the homeowner a manicure, according to the report. The woman told deputies Covert typically was professional in her salon, but was relaxed and excited at the home, and brought a glass of wine with her. Covert saw the alligator while working on the woman's porch and when Covert finished she started taking pictures of the alligator, the woman told deputies. The woman and her husband started screaming for Covert to get away from the alligator because they saw it grab a deer a few days earlier, deputies said. Covert said "I don't look like a deer" and reached to touch the alligator when the animal attacked, according to the report. She was the third person killed by an alligator in the state in the past four years. (More alligator stories.)

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