Gorilla shot to death after it escapes at Dallas Zoo, injuring four including 3-year-old boy

<br> <br>DALLAS (AP) _ Dallas Zoo officials said they can't explain how a 300-pound gorilla escaped from its enclosure, injuring four people before it was shot to death. <br><br>Police evacuated an

Friday, March 19th 2004, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

DALLAS (AP) _ Dallas Zoo officials said they can't explain how a 300-pound gorilla escaped from its enclosure, injuring four people before it was shot to death.

Police evacuated an estimated 300 people from the zoo compound Thurday and killed Jabari, a 13-year-old western lowland gorilla, after it charged at officers.

Zoo workers armed with tranquilizer guns had pursued the animal through the forested jungles of the Wilds of Africa exhibit, but could not gain a clear shot, officials said.

``It tried to charge two of our officers, so we had to shoot it,'' Deputy Police Chief Daniel Garcia said. ``You can imagine the pandemonium we had out here when he got loose. We felt terrible we had to put this animal down.''

The injured included a mother and her toddler son. Rivers Noah, 3, was in fair condition at Children's Medical Center with multiple bites to his head and chest. His mother, Keisha Heard, 26, who was bitten on the legs, was in good condition at Parkland Memorial Hospital.

Cheryl Reichert suffered injuries to her upper left arm and was in good condition at Methodist Central Hospital, police said. The fourth injured person, a child, was treated at the scene.

Jabari was in the award-winning gorilla-conservation area, surrounded by a 16-foot concave wall, before the attack around 5 p.m. Some youths had reportedly teased Jabari shortly before.

``He had to have scaled the wall,'' said zoo director Rich Buickerood. But ``this habitat is among the best in the country. This blows our minds.''

He said he did not know why zoo employees, who were armed with pepper spray, did not use it on the gorilla.

The gorilla ``was banging on the door and broke it down, then he jumped out,'' a witness, Diana Gonzalez, told television station WFAA. ``He was growling and yelling.''

She and several children escaped from the area without injury. Other zoo-goers hid inside a restaurant and the monorail surrounding the Wilds of Africa exhibit.

The zoo has been in financial straits and the nonprofit Dallas Zoological Society recently proposed a county takeover. Buickerood said last month that the zoo staff had been cut and maintenance postponed because of the fund shortage.

In 1998, a 25-year-old zookeeper was injured by a gorilla at the zoo after the door to the animal's cage was left open. That animal was captured with a tranquilizer dart.