Tiger Victim Died Trying to Aid Friend

Details emerge on Christmas mauling death, injuries
By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 29, 2007 7:00 AM CST
Tiger Victim Died Trying to Aid Friend
The Sousa family, Carlos Sousa, bottom left, his wife Marilza, bottom right, daughter Betris Silva, top center, son Leo Ferreira, second from top left, and two unidentified neighbors watch news reports on the death of Carlos Sousa Jr. at home in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Dec. 26, 2007. Carlos Sousa...   (Associated Press)

Carlos Sousa Jr., the 17-year-old killed by the escaped tiger at the San Francisco Zoo on Christmas, was not the tiger's first victim, the AP reports, as new details emerge in the mauling. Tatiana, the 350-pound Siberian tiger, first attacked one of his two friends, and Sousa and the friend's younger brother yelled to attempt to distract him, police said after interviewing the surviving boys.

The tiger then turned on Sousa, slashing him in the neck, and the other men ran for help. Brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, are still hospitalized with severe bite and claw wounds. Both have had previous run-ins with authorities, AP reports, including an arrest for public drunkenness and resisting arrest in October. (More tiger stories.)

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