The alligator only had three legs and one eye, but it was still powerful enough to put a Gainesville man in the hospital.
A 9-foot gator attacked James Albert Wimmer on Monday in a small creek inside the Sweetwater Branch section of Southeast 16th Avenue, also known as Tent City.
Wimmer was taken to Shands at UF to be treated for extensive injuries to his left arm, shoulder and shoulder blade.
“He was hurt bad,” said J.C. Goodwin, a friend who jumped in to save Wimmer.
Goodwin and his neighbor were washing down the hot day with a cold beer when Wimmer walked up to say hello.
Goodwin said Wimmer sat and talked, then said he was going to the creek to cool off.
“He’s done it 100 times before,” Goodwin said.
The section of the creek next to Goodwin’s tent is about 5 feet deep and 5 feet across.
The alligator, known as Three Legs, lived about 50 feet down the creek from Goodwin’s camp. Those who visited the camp knew about the alligator and looked before they jumped in, Goodwin said.
But this time it was different.
The alligator was submerged under a raised stone ledge where people usually jump off, which made it difficult to see.
“He essentially jumped right on top of [the alligator],” Goodwin said.
He heard Wimmer’s splash, but Goodwin said the second noise he heard sent chills up his spine.
“You can tell when someone’s in distress,” Goodwin said. “He let out a scream you couldn’t believe.”
Goodwin ran down his makeshift stairs that led to the creek and saw the alligator latched onto Wimmer around the upper part of his left arm toward his shoulder blade.
Wimmer got away and, with his uninjured arm, tried to drag himself away from the gator by grabbing onto some roots in the river.
The gator swam, mouth open, toward Wimmer again, Goodwin said.
Goodwin grabbed a cinderblock he used to prop up his stairs to the creek.
“I busted the block on his head,” Goodwin said. “The gator went back under, did a full circle and swam away.”
Once the gator was back in his lair, Goodwin jumped in and dragged Wimmer away from the reptile while a neighbor called 911.
Gainesville Fire Rescue, Gainesville Police Department and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission responded.
Firefighters carried the unconscious man out of the water, within just 10 yards of the alligator, GFR District Chief James Lovvorn said.
He was then taken to Shands at UF.
Lovvorn didn’t know Wimmer’s condition when he composed a press release.
Officials from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shot and killed Three Legs, Goodwin said.
Goodwin said he heard that Wimmer is doing well and thinks Wimmer will likely forget what happened on Monday.
“My old buddy almost died right here,” Goodwin said. “That gator was playing no games.”
Contact Shelby Webb at swebb@alligator.org.
J.C. Goodwin, on Wednesday afternoon at the scene of the attack, explains how his friend, James Wimmer, was attacked by an alligator two days earlier.
