The verdict is in.
About a week after officials at the Cincinnati Zoo shot and killed a gorilla named Harambe because they feared it would injure a toddler who had fallen into its enclosure, we now have legal closure on the case that has captivated the nation.
The parents of said toddler will not be charged with any kind of crime.
Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters announced on Monday morning that Michelle Gregg was NOT negligent when her three-year-old boy strayed from her watch the Cincinnati Zoo.
Many on the Internet have been calling for Gregg’s head ever since the video below went viral:
It depicts the 17-year old, 450-pound gorilla throwing the child all around.
Did Harambe mean the infant harm? Maybe not.
But when you have this kind of size and strength discrepancy, there’s simply no way of knowing what would have happened… and no way the zoo could have taken any chances.
In making his ruling, Deters pointed out Gregg had three other kids with her at the time one of her sons ended up in the animal’s clutches.
Moreover, based on surveillance footage and witnesses at the scene, she was being attentive. Accidents simply happen.
Deters explained very simply that “kids can scamper off and they do.”
He added, in sort of hilarious fashion, that if Gregg had been “in the bathroom smoking crack that would have been a different story, but that’s not what happened.”
Deters concluded by saying “there’s nothing that the mother could have done” and also defended the zoo’s difficult decision in putting Harambe down.
The lawyer labeled this a “painful choice” for officials to make, however:
“It’s still an animal. It does not equate to human life.”
