Alligator.Photo: Getty
A retirement community in South Carolina is being sued after a woman was killed in an alligator attack that her family claims was preventable.
The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office previously said the 88-year-old woman was founddead near the alligator, which was reportedly guarding her body, around 11:15 a.m. local time.
Del Webb Communities, Inc., Sun City Hilton Head Community Association, and an employee, Tammy Hayes, are accused in the family’s complaint of failing to properly protect residents of the community from alligators that live in the area.
The defendants are also accused of misrepresenting the “safety and security” of the community and did not warn Becker of “the risks and dangers of alligator attacks” at the community.
Del Webb and Sun City did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s requests for comment.
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Sun City Hilton Head has been open since June 1995, according to theretirement community’s website.
Del Webb purchased the first 5,100 acres of land for the project in June 1993 from the Union Camp Company, “which used the property as an industrial pine tree farm for paper manufacturing.”
The community, which is home for more than 16,000 residents ages 55 and up, covers more than 5,725 acres of land and features 1,500 acres of open land and wetlands.
According to itsmission statement, Sun City Hilton Head aims to “maintain and protect” lifestyle and values within the community.
Maintenance at the property includes “ensuring safety with regard to alligators,” according to the suit.
The vision statement also describes the Sun City as “a premier, well-managed, fiscally responsible active adult community” where residents can “enjoy a richly diverse lifestyle in a value-oriented, safe and aesthetically pleasing environment.”
However, the lawsuit claims Del Webb and Sun City Hilton Head failed to do just that.
“Becker was safety-conscious,” her family claims, adding that safety “was a material consideration in Becker’s decision to move” to the community.
The suit also accuses Del Webb of being “negligent” in both its design and construction of Sun City Hilton Head, claiming that the organization had a duty to “ensure” residents were safe, including “against natural hazards such as alligators.”
Sun City and Hayes allegedly sought specific permits to cull alligators from the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR), which ultimately authorized the request to legally hunt and cull alligators on the property.
The suit suggests that the defendants were aware of “the existence, presence, and predatory nature of alligators” in the retirement community, but still did not do enough to protect residents from the dangerous creatures.
“Sun City failed to supervise Hayes to ensure that she performed her duties,” the suit claims, adding that the organization “should not have retained Hayes in their employment knowing she was failing to manage alligators within the Community.”
The alligator involved in last August’s attack is believed to have been a male more than 9 and half feet in length, Beaufort County sheriff’s spokeswoman Angela Viens previously toldNBC News.
Beaufort County Coroner David Ott toldNBC affiliate WYFFthat Becker died of blunt force trauma due to the attack.
source: people.com
