The ticket booths are empty and the gates are chained shut at an entrance to the Bronx Zoo in New York, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. Zoo officials say a visitor who leaped into an exhibit and was mauled by a tiger was alone with the 400-pound beast for about 10 minutes before being rescued. (AP Photo/Jim Fitzgerlad)
Mauled NY man: I wanted 'to be one with the tiger'
The ticket booths are empty and the gates are chained shut at an entrance to the Bronx Zoo in New York, Friday, Sept. 21, 2012. Zoo officials say a visitor who leaped into an exhibit and was mauled by a tiger was alone with the 400-pound beast for about 10 minutes before being rescued. (AP Photo/Jim Fitzgerlad)
By JIM FITZGERALD
Associated Press /
September 22, 2012
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NEW YORK (AP) — New York City police say they plan to arrest a man mauled by a tiger at the Bronx Zoo.
NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said Saturday that 25-year-old David Villalobos told investigators that he deliberately leaped into a zoo exhibit because he wanted to ‘‘be one with the tiger.’’
Browne says the hospitalized victim will be charged with trespassing.
Villalobos remained hospitalized in stable condition Saturday after the 400-pound cat bit him in the back. He also suffered broken bones in the jump Friday from an elevated train that circles the exhibit.
The police spokesman says that when a police officer asked Villalobos why he did it, the victim responded, ‘‘Everybody in life makes choices.’’
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