Steven Hamilton, a 71-year-old man whom people in the area said regularly fished at a retention pond near Florida’s Lake Apopka, was killed Friday in an alligator attack.
Hamilton was well-known to those who frequented the pond in Dr. Bradford Memorial Park in Winter Garden, Florida, which is outside of Orlando.
“Every time it was a, ‘Hey Steve, how’s it going?’ You know, just checking in. He was out there almost every single night fishing,” said Connor Kelley.
Jason Handley, another regular at the park, said, “He was a regular that comes out here and fishes.”
Handley arrived at the park Friday shortly after hearing about the attack but did not initially know who was involved. Kelley was also there and recalled the moment he learned it was Hamilton.
“As I was leaving to go home, I heard someone say apparently it was an older gentleman who fishes there every night, and just immediately my stomach dropped because I was so worried it was Steve, and it turns out it unfortunately was,” Kelley said.
Kelley, who had fished with Hamilton a few times, described him as kind and generous.
“It just shows that he was a very kind man. Very relatable. I heard from someone else in town that he had helped her kids with fishing down there a few times,” Kelley said.
Winter Garden police said Hamilton was fishing when the attack occurred. He did not survive.
Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) officials said a trapper later removed a nearly 12-foot alligator from the water. Handley witnessed the capture.
“Yeah, he’s got him. He’s got him,” Handley said in a video he took of the capture Friday.
Just a few minutes from the pond, Emily Porto, who lives along Lake Apopka, saw a news helicopter overhead Friday and immediately feared the worst.
“I went on live, and it was there, and I said, ‘Oh no. That can’t be happening.’ And I warned them,” Porto said.
Porto said she has been calling FWC after her 8-year-old Samoyed dog, Stormi, was killed by an alligator in the lake last month. She shared a photo that she said shows Stormi in the gator’s mouth. She also displayed recent phone calls she made to FWC’s nuisance alligator program.
She said a trapper was sent out after her dog was killed, but said the gator responsible was not caught. Since then, she said, more alligators have been spotted near her property, and trappers have returned to the area. Porto is calling for more action to remove alligators from the lake.
“They cannot, when I call, they cannot just tell me that, you know, any body of water in Florida, it can have a gator. I understand that. The gator took my dog offshore. The gator took the man yesterday offshore. They are hunting. So they are becoming very aggressive. They are fearless, and we have to care about people,” Porto said.
For those who knew Hamilton, his death is a stark reminder of the dangers posed by Florida’s waterways.
“He was not someone that, you know, was harassing any alligators or anything like that. It was just a very unfortunate event that happened and a very sober reminder of, you know, how just mindful to be around water in Florida,” Kelley said.
