ORLANDO, Fla. — A New Hampshire family is sharing the final moments just before a killer whale proceeded to kill its trainer Wednesday at Orlando’s SeaWorld.
Todd Connell captured seven minutes of footage as trainer Dawn Brancheau was interacting with the killer whale named Tilikum in knee-deep water. He shut off the camera just seconds before the whale grabbed Brancheau by her long pony tail and pulled her underwater.
An autopsy later determined that the 40-year-old whale trainer died from multiple traumatic injuries and drowning.
“I saw her hair in his mouth, and he rolled and she went over the top of him and went right up underneath and then he just took her down,” Connell told Orlando television station WESH.
Connell said he is glad he turned his camera off before the attack.
“Thank God I turned my camera off because I would not want to have shot any of what we witnessed,” he said.
His wife, Suzanne Connell, said witnessing the attack was traumatic for the family, especially their 10-year-old son.
“He was hysterical. We were outside the fence looking in, and he was just hysterical,” she said.
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