SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – A father was taken into custody after San Diego police said he carried his 2-year-old daughter to the San Diego Zoo’s elephant exhibit on Friday.
Police confirmed that officers were called around 4 p.m. after the man was seen carrying his daughter through two fences into the enclosure. According to the police, one of these fences is electrified.
In a statement, zoo officials said the man “deliberately and illegally entered a habitat where our Asian and African elephants live”. According to the police, the elephants were upset after the man entered the enclosure with his daughter. When he saw that the animals were upset, he fled the exhibit with his daughter and dropped her on the way outside, police added.
The man and daughter made it out of the exhibit before the zoo’s safety could arrive, the zoo said.
According to the zoo, neither elephant nor the man and his daughter were injured in the incident.
“We were standing right there. We were 20 meters away,” a witness told ABC 10News. “Scream, ‘Dude, what are you doing? Get out of here! Get the baby out! What are you doing? Get out of the elephant enclosure.’ The elephant screams and attacks him. He doesn’t know what’s going on and has hardly gotten out of there with his life and that of his child. “
According to the SDPD, the man could at least be charged with child endangerment. The officers are investigating whether drugs or alcohol played a role in the incident.
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