Deputy fatally shoots alligator with AR-15, rescues teen it was chasing up a tree

A Florida deputy was able to rescue a teenage girl who had been cornered in a tree by a large alligator by shooting it with an AR-15 rifle. Jordan Broderick, 15, was stuck in a tree in Lake County for nearly an hour on Friday afternoon because a 10-foot alligator sat on the ground below, hissing at her, the Sun-Sentinel reported, citing a sheriff’s office report. “My daughter’s stuck in a frickin’ tree and there’s gators surrounding her!” Broderick’s mother reportedly told a 911 dispatcher. “Oh my God! Please hurry! Please hurry!” Deputy Mitch Blackmon responded to the scene, where he found the teen — who had been swimming in a creek in Ocala National Forest — yelling that she was tired from hanging onto a tree branch for so long. Blackmon wrote in his report that his “presence failed to scare the alligator away, and it began encroaching on my area at which time I fired one single 223 round from my Bushmaster AR15 killing the alligator.”...MORE