The family of a 17-year-old teen who was killed on Christmas Day by a tiger at the San Francisco Zoo says the last moments of his life were spent trying to save his friend from the tiger.
Carlos Sousa Jr.'s father says that his son and his friend's brother tried to distract the 350-pound Siberian tiger as he attacked Sousa's friend. That's when the cat came after Sousa instead.
"He didn't run. He tried to help his friend, and it was him who ended up getting it the worst," Carlos Sousa Sr., said Thursday after meeting with police.
The brothers, Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, are recovering in a San Francisco hospital with severe bite and claw wounds.
San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong said Friday that the police were nearing the end of their investigation and had concluded the tiger was not intentionally released.
She also said they were able to confirm what happened after the tiger escaped its cage on Christmas Day.
The tiger, named Tatiana, first went after the older brother. Sousa and Paul Dhaliwal yelled in hopes of scaring it off. The cat then went for Sousa, slashing his neck as the brothers limped over to a zoo caf锟� as it was closing, to try to get help.
After killing the teenager, the tiger followed a trail of blood left by Kulbir Dhaliwal, and mauled both men, police said.
Realizing that an animal was loose in the zoo, four officers began a search and found the other two victims at the caf锟�. The tiger had cornered the older brother and, as the officers approached, it resumed its attack.
The officers used their car patrol lights to distract the tiger from the brother and it then advanced toward the officers. All four officers fired at the tiger, killing it.
Police officials say the brothers had not been cooperative with their investigation. The two have had run-ins with the law and were charged in October with public intoxication and resisting arrest.
Police have not addressed whether the victims had teased the tiger ahead of the attack. Police are now investigating how Tatiana was able to leave her enclosure.
On Thursday, San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel A. Mollinedo acknowledged that the wall around the animal's pen was just under four metres high (12锟� feet) high. That's well below the height recommended by the main accrediting agency for U.S. zoos: five metres.
Mollinedo had previously said the wall was 5.5 metres high (18 feet), baffling many who wondered how a caged tiger could jump to that height.
He said it was becoming increasingly clear the tiger leaped or climbed out, perhaps by grabbing onto a ledge of the enclosure, which was built in 1940.
"She had to have jumped," he said. "How she was able to jump that high is amazing to me."
Investigators have ruled out the theory the tiger escaped through a door behind the exhibit.
Mollinedo said inspectors with the Association of Zoos & Aquariums had examined the wall three years ago, and never raised any red flags about its size.
"Obviously now that something's happened, we're going to be revisiting the actual height," he said.
AZA spokesman Steven Feldman said the minimum recommended height of 16.4 feet is just a guideline and that a zoo could still be deemed safe even if its walls were lower.
Zoo officials said a "moat" separating the habitat from the public viewing area that measured 10 metres across contained no water, and has never had any. They have not said whether that affected the tiger's ability to get out.
On Thursday, San Francisco Police Chief Heather Fong denied earlier reports that police were looking into the possibility that the victims had dangled a leg over the edge of the moat, after reports spread that a shoe and blood were found inside the enclosure.
No shoe was found inside, she said, but a shoeprint was found on the railing of the fence surrounding the enclosure.
"There is a shoeprint on the railing," she told a news conference. "Our forensic analysis will allow us to determine if any of those shoes match the print that is on there."
The zoo will remain closed until Jan. 3, Mollinedo said Friday.
