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Thane Maynard, director of the Cincinnati Zoo, gives details about Harambe, the gorilla shot and killed Saturday after a 4-year-old boy fell into a shallow moat surrounding the zoo's gorilla exhibit. The Enquirer/Cara Owsley The Enquirer/Cara Owsley
Kim O'Connor, the West Michigan woman who recorded video of a Cincinnati Zoo gorilla dragging a toddler who fell into the exhibit, says she took disturbing video that convinced her zoo staff took the appropriate action in shooting the gorilla.(Photo: WZZM-TV, Grand Rapids, Mich.)
GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. —<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
After seeing video of tense moments at the Cincinnati Zoo<span style="color: Red;">*</span>after<span style="color: Red;">*</span>a toddler fell into an exhibit and was dragged by a gorilla, prompting zoo staff to shoot the animal,<span style="color: Red;">*</span>many people went to social media to blame someone.
But
the woman who recorded the incident said she wants to set the record straight. Kim O'Connor says many people talking on social media have it all wrong.
She says what happened at the zoo that day was no one's fault, but rather a tragic accident. O'Connor's phone recorded the disturbing video of a gorilla dragging a young boy and the screams at the zoo heard around the world.
She says all she wanted that Saturday was a snapshot of the gorilla. She says within about 60 seconds, everything changed when she "heard a splash."
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Then, the 400-pound gorilla began dragging the toddler.
"I'm telling everyone stop screaming, stop screaming," O'Connor said Wednesday.
The screams made the situation even worse.
"He (the gorilla) definitely responded to the noise of the crowd, because when we got the crowd to stop and be quiet he sat still longer, but the minute the volume went up and people really started yelling, the more he felt like he had to get that boy away," O'Connor said.
Then came the controversial shot killing the gorilla.
"People are saying things, and they have opinions about something they know nothing about," O'Connor said. "It was not a friendly, 'I'm going to take him to the zookeeper and let him go.' He was dragging him around like a doll and they had to do what they had to do, that boy only had minutes left, I know he only had minutes left."
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O'Connor doesn't blame the mother who she says, just moments before the incident, told the boy not to go in. She described what the boy said to his mother.
"'I <span style="color: Red;">*</span>want to go in the monkeys, the gorillas, I want to go in' and she kept saying, 'No you don't, no you don't'," O'Connor said.
She says it's not the zoo's fault either.
"That same exhibit I would take my children there now with no changes. Would I watch them closely? Sure, I would," O'Connor said.
O'Connor adds she shot other video but says she has not released it because she says it's too disturbing.
She says investigators have not contacted her about the incident at this point.
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