14 DAY TRIAL // Yesterday morning, at around 9, a female elephant living in captivity at Dickerson Park Zoo in Springfield, Missouri killed a 62-year-old keeper named John Phillip Bradford.
Information shared with the public says that the incident happened in a matter of seconds.
Apparently, John, who had worked at this facility for 30 years, and his colleagues were trying to convince the 41-year-old elephant to go into a chute linking the barn stalls with the yard.
When the elephant stopped midway, John approached it and attempted to urge it forward. At this point, the 3-ton animal lunged forward, knocked the zookeeper to the floor and then crushed him. John died on the spot.
“Bradford, 62, and other staff were working with a 41-year-old female elephant, named Patience, when the elephant made a sudden movement, fatally injuring Bradford,” Cora Scott, a spokesperson for the Dickerson Park Zoo told the press, as cited by ABC News.
“No disciplinary action will be taken with the animal. The animal will not be euthanized,” she added.
By the looks of it, Patience had been acting fairly odd since the beginning of this year's October, when Pinky, the zoo's matriarch elephant, passed away due to kidney disease.