Comment on this storyComment
Nancy Becker was in the backyard of her home in a South Carolina retirement community last year when an alligator attacked her.
The 88-year-old had been trimming shrubs on a mid-August morning before she slipped and fell into a nearby lagoon that was part of her community for residents ages 55 and up, the Island Packet reported.
By the time first responders arrived on the scene, they found Becker dead in the water alongside the alligator, according to police.
The alligator roaming in the lagoon was “drawn” there by the “manmade ponds and ponding basins” built by the company that developed the retirement community, Becker’s family alleged in a lawsuit filed Monday. The lawsuit, filed in Beaufort County, S.C., states that Del Webb Communities failed to “ensure against natural hazards such as alligators.” It names Del Webb; the community where Becker lived, Sun City Hilton Head; and an employee of the community as defendants, with allegations including negligence and wrongful death, among others.
During the attack, “Becker endured conscious pain and suffering prior to her ultimate death,” the lawsuit states.
Del Webb Communities and Sun City Hilton Head did not immediately respond to The Washington Post’s requests for comment Thursday. Attempts to reach the community employee were unsuccessful.
Neighbors who knew Becker said she loved gardening and spending time in her backyard, the Island Packet reported.
She had been in her backyard on Aug. 15 shortly before police received a call about a large alligator near the edge of a pond that onlookers thought was “guarding what was believed to be a person,” according to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office. Police and emergency personnel arrived around 11 a.m.
During the attack, the lawsuit says Becker “endured excruciating pain and suffering, including severed limbs.”
After Becker’s body was taken out of the water, the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources worked to remove the alligator. At the time, both the Department of Natural Resources and the Beaufort County Coroner’s Office were investigating the incident, the sheriff’s office said. Neither organization responded to The Post’s request for comment Thursday.
A few days after the incident, the coroner said Becker died of blunt force trauma from the attack, WYFF4 reported.
The lawsuit alleges that Del Webb Communities, the company that developed the community where Becker lived, “breached” its duty to residents “by designing and constructing ponds and ponding basins within the Community which attracted hazards and predators such as alligators, without adequate safeguards and protections.”
Even before the attack that killed Becker, the complaint alleges, her retirement community and one of its employees “were aware of the hazards and risks of alligators.” But they did not take steps to prevent the reptiles from living in the community’s ponds or “warn of the dangers of alligator attacks to the public,” according to the lawsuit.
Bruce Iler, who lived next door to Becker and knew her for decades, told the Island Packet that she would be missed.
“She was a lovely lady,” Iler told the paper. “Just delightful and a genial spirit.”
Source link: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2023/04/21/alligator-attack-lawsuit-south-carolina/