Did Harambe kill the kid? Remembering Cincinnati Zoo Gorilla on 7th death anniversary

Seven years ago on May 28, Harambe, a gorilla at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden, was killed by authorities in order to save a three-year-old boy named Isaiah Dickerson, who had climbed into the animal’s enclosure.

Did Harambe kill the kid?

Dickerson had apparently crawled through a barrier and fallen an estimated 10 to 12 feet into the moat surrounding the enclosure where Harambe was housed, Zoo President Thane Maynard later said.

After Dickerson fell into the enclosure, Harambe grabbed the boy and dragged him around. The zoo’s Dangerous Animal Response Team deemed the situation “life-threatening,” Maynard said, after the child was with the animal for about 10 minutes.

“The choice was made to put down, or shoot, Harambe, so he’s gone,” Maynard said. “We’ve never had a situation like this at the Cincinnati Zoo where a dangerous animal needed to be dispatched in an emergency situation.”

The four-year-old survived the attack with only a concussion. Later, after the incident went viral, sparking a debate on whether killing Harambe was the right decision by the authorities, the kid’s father, Deonne Dickerson, posted a photo hugging his son, to prove that the little boy had survived the incident unscathed.

An eyewitness said that as the boy’s mother was preparing to leave the exhibit with a female friend and several other children, the boy told her that he “wanted to swim with the gorilla.”

“People around me were talking about how big the gorilla was, calling him King Kong, and I heard him say ‘I wanna go’ and the mom was like, ‘No, you’re not’,” said Kim, who filmed the incident. ”She was putting kids in the strollers, there were four or five kids total, and getting ready to leave the exhibit. She didn’t have him by the hand, and at one point, he must have been behind her, out of sight. I don’t think in her wildest imagination she thought he would actually go back and do that. All of a sudden, I heard a splash and someone yelled, ‘Oh my God, there’s a kid in there!’ Kids, men, women, everyone started screaming and then the mother looked around and ran to the wall and said, ‘Oh my God, that’s my son.’”

The incident was investigated but ultimately authorities decided not to press charges on the boy’s parents.