Alligators hamper teenager's rescue in fatal Florida crash
Efforts to rescue a teenager who drove off a bridge and plunged into a murky canal in southwest Florida were hampered by two dangerous obstacles: a pair of large alligators.
Police and fire rescue workers responded to the crash in Venice, Florida, June 22 and found a red Ford Ranger submerged with one person trapped inside.
Rescue swimmers entered the water and found the person, but because the alligators were seen lurking in the water near the car, the swimmers were recalled and a dive team brought in.
After Florida Fish and Wildlife officials removed the predators, the man, identified as 19-year-old Fredy Chavez Sanchez, was pronounced dead. Officials have not yet released the cause of death.
The alligators measured 7 feet, 9 inches and 7 feet, 7 inches, respectively, according to Florida Fish and Wildlife.
Police say the car was speeding when it swerved off the road, struck a pole and dove into the canal. The investigation is still ongoing.
A GoFundMe campaign for Chavez's family said he died instantly. Chavez, who recently graduated from high school, was originally from Guatemala, according to the fundraiser.
An estimated 1.3 million alligators ranging in size from roughly three to 13 feet live in Florida, but they rarely attack people for reasons other than food, according to the FWC.
Two people so far in 2025 have been bitten by alligators in Florida, including one person who died, according to FWC data through May.
In 2024, 11 people in Florida were bitten by alligators, but the state did not record any deaths. Since 1948, the agency says 453 alligator "bite incidents" have occurred, with 26 resulting in death.
Alligator bites are mostly likely to happen near water, the agency says.
This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: Alligators delay rescue of Florida teen after fatal crash
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'I was just informed that there was a fake clemency petition sent to the Governor of Illinois with Larry Hoover's name forged on it,' Moore wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. 'I've already had one media outlet contact me about this. No one from my office, nor any other retained attorney by Larry Hoover assisted with this.' Moore said Thursday he was still investigating its origins and hoped to talk to Hoover about it soon. A spokesman for Pritzker's office had no comment on the document Thursday. The apparently fake clemency request may be a blip in Hoover's ongoing legal saga, but it's also an indication of the lasting mystique that continues to follow one of Chicago's most notorious gang leaders even though he's been behind bars for more than 50 years. The letter obtained by the Tribune had been received Monday by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, which reviews all requests for clemency and makes recommendations to the governor. Pritzker, who formally announced Thursday he will run for a third term, has previously commented that any clemency requests from Hoover would be treated the same as any other prisoner. 'We have a process in the state of Illinois,' Pritzker told reporters soon after Trump's commutation of Hoover's federal sentence. 'If you want to seek commutation or pardon, you go through a process. First you apply through the Prisoner Review Board, and then the Prisoner Review Board makes a recommendation to the governor.' Pritzker said it was important to make decisions based on a full record, after interviewing not only the prisoner but also their family, friends as well as victims or victims' relatives. 'I have, as you know, had pardons and commutations, hundreds of them during the course of my administration, and they all — every single one of them has involved that kind of a record,' Pritzker said. 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Federal prosecutors vehemently opposed any breaks for Hoover, arguing he did untold damage to communities across Chicago during his reign on the streets. They argued he has continued to hold sway over the gang's hierarchy while imprisoned, even promoting an underling he'd secretly communicated with through coded messages hidden in a dictionary. Hoover's attorneys, meanwhile, have claimed that decades behind bars have left him a changed man and that prosecutors have unfairly painted him as a puppet master to try to keep him locked up. At a hearing last year, U.S. District Judge John Robert Blakey asked Hoover's defense attorney point-blank: 'How many other murders is he responsible for?' 'I don't know what the methodology is for determining that,' attorney Bonjean replied, somewhat taken aback by the unusually blunt query. 'So many we can't count?' Blakey shot back. Days after Trump commuted his federal sentence, Hoover was transferred out of the supermax prison in Florence and is currently being housed in the Colorado state Department of Corrections system, though his exact whereabouts are not public.
