Florida deputy uses AR-15 to save 15-year-old girl from alligator (VIDEO)

A teen trapped by an aggressive gator was rescued by a Sunshine State lawman equipped with a Bushmaster.

Jordan Broderick, 15, was trapped up a tree for almost an hour last Friday afternoon by a large alligator that she encountered while floating on a raft at Alexander Springs park in the Ocala National Forest. Some 30 minutes into the dilemma, Broderick’s mother made a frantic call to 911 saying, “My daughter’s stuck in a frickin’ tree and there’s gators surrounding her!”

Lake County Deputies responded and Deputy Mitch Blackmon was forced to destroy the big gator. “My 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,” said Blackmon in his incident report.

The Washington Post reports that the animal was later recovered with a bullet wound in its head. A Sheriff’s Office spokesman said the alligator was a nine-foot female, and a nest was discovered nearby.

It’s not just alligators that are a concern in the area, Lake County is expanding its bear-resistant garbage can initiative to help cut down on interactions between increasing populations of black bears and humans.

The post Florida deputy uses AR-15 to save 15-year-old girl from alligator (VIDEO) appeared first on Guns.com.