Alligator responsible for September attack in Collier County captured, killed

A woman gardening outside her home in Collier County was attacked by an alligator and now there are new details that explain exactly what happened, and how the woman managed to escape.

“The woman’s screaming. I don’t know if an alligator got her. I don’t know what. I can’t see her. I see her hands up out of the grass. She’s screaming help, help!” Those were the words that a 911 operator heard on Sept. 23.

A seven-foot alligator grabbed Jane Monti. She was gardening in her own yard like she did every morning.

The 911 caller said, “she’s bleeding. She was attacked by the edge of the canal.”

Monti spent more than a week in the hospital after the attack. A report from Florida Fish and Wildlife says that an alligator bit her 16 times.

Mary Randall, Monti’s neighbor said, “she was tending her plants and that alligator thought she was something else. It was a blur and it just came out of nowhere.”

Randall told WINK News about that September attack and how Monti fought back.

Monti used a shovel she had nearby to hit the alligator and push it off of her. In the process, she left the alligator with identifiable injures.

When a Florida Fish and Wildlife official arrived at the scene in the Verona neighborhood, Monti was already at the hospital being treated for bites up to three inches long.

Thanks to her quick thinking and some help from her neighbors, she lived to tell the story.

“We saw Jane lying there. It was her right leg and it was in her calf, both front and back. Webb kicked at my door and said we need a towel someone has been hurt next door,” said Randell.

Wildlife officials were able to track down the alligator that attacked Monti. They took measurements of the animal to confirm it was responsible for the attack before euthanizing it.