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Alligator stalked dock of marina

Before a boy was killed, a nuisance report had been phoned in on a particularly bold alligator.

TAVARES - For several days, the large alligator had been testing how close it could get to the Palm Gardens Marina, where a dock and a restaurant on the Dead River attract steady traffic through the adjoining mobile home park.

On Sunday, the alligator, from 8 to 11 feet long, swam within 30 feet of the dock. On Wednesday, it got right up against the marina's sea wall.

Even so, 12-year-old Bryan Jeffrey Griffin plunged into his swimming hole late Wednesday evening, near the marina where fisherman routinely clean their fish and sometimes throw the remains into the water.

Even when his two friends pulled him from the river after spotting the alligator close by, Bryan jumped right back in.

When his friends, including 14-year-old Justin VanGorder, tried pulling him out again, Bryan hit them and told them he wanted to swim. He splashed around for a few more seconds and got about 20 feet from shore.

Then he disappeared under the dark water.

At first, his friends thought he was horsing around. But they quickly learned he was in trouble when he resurfaced and shouted, "Help! Help! I don't want to go!"

He disappeared again. The last time his friends saw him was when the alligator resurfaced in bloody water with Bryan clamped inside its mouth.

Sheriff's deputies and wildlife officers on Thursday killed seven alligators in the river, hoping one of them was the one that killed Bryan.

The alligators were shipped to biology laboratories for examination to try to determine which one killed the boy.

"They feel fairly confident that one of the gators is the one responsible," said Lake County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Nick Pallitto.

After Bryan disappeared underwater for the last time, the boys ran to the house of Keith Buse, who owns the marina.

"I ran out to my truck, got my pistol and had my wife call 911," Buse said. "The gator stayed underwater."

Bryan had been under for at least 25 minutes before a Sheriff's Office helicopter saw him and dropped a buoy to guide deputies, who pulled him up. The boy was pronounced dead at Leesburg Regional Medical Center at 9:19 p.m.

- Information from the Orlando Sentinel was used in this report.