CINCINNATI (AP) — The prosecutor in Cincinnati plans to announce next week whether to pursue charges against parents of a 3-year-old boy who got into the Cincinnati Zoo’s gorilla exhibit, leading to the fatal shooting of an endangered gorilla to protect the child.
Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters says he is reviewing the Cincinnati police investigation of the family’s actions in last Saturday’s incident and says he will announce a decision on Monday.
Legal experts have said that prosecution seems unlikely. The family has declined comment.
Meanwhile, the zoo plans to reopen Gorilla World on June 7 with a higher, reinforced barrier. The boy apparently climbed over the outer barrier before falling some 15 feet into a shallow moat.
A special response team shot the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla to protect the boy.
The shooter was a specially trained zoo staffer on one of the many dangerous-animal emergency squads at animal parks around the country.
Teams train at firing ranges, stash rifles and shotguns in strategic spots around the grounds and rank the most hazardous species in their care. Members train in elaborate drills for situations like what unfolded in Cincinnati Saturday.
It’s a weighty responsibility for people who work among animals they might one day have to kill. But team members say they understand the need to do it if a human life is endangered.
Zoos emphasize that killing an animal is a last resort.