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File photo. navarvel via Flickr/Creative Commons
Florida
Suspected burglar killed by alligator 'while hiding from police'
Matthew Riggins was found with injuries that were consistent with an alligator attack.
POLICE IN THE United States say a man who may have hidden as officers investigated reports of two suspicious men in a Florida community targeted by recent burglaries was killed by a three-metre-long alligator.
Local police say 22-year-old Matthew Riggins told his girlfriend he would be in Barefoot Bay to commit burglaries with another suspect.
Authorities received calls on 13 November about two suspicious men in black walking behind homes and investigated. Riggins was reported missing the next day.
Brevard County Sheriff’s Major Tod Goodyear said police divers recovered Riggins’ body 10 days later in a nearby lake and the injuries were consistent with an alligator attack.
Authorities said Riggins had drowned and the alligator, which behaved aggressively toward divers, was trapped and euthanised.
Florida Today reports a second person has been taken into custody.
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