What Was Caught On Film At An Ohio Zoo Will Stop Your Heart

Over the weekend something unexpected—and quite tragic—happened at the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden.

A four-year-old boy fell into the gorilla enclosure after crawling through a barrier at the exhibit on Saturday—and the gorilla was killed by zoo staff as a result. Several news outlets reported that the boy was in the exhibit with the 400 lb., 17-year-old gorilla, Harambe, for approximately 10 minutes. And while the gorilla appears to be protecting the boy from the screaming crowd in the video, he also drags the boy across the exhibit multiple times.

Twitter user Amber Soler tweeted video footage of the incident:

this happened while my Mom was at the gorilla exhibit. Her video. #cincinnatizoo#gorilla#harambepic.twitter.com/RFBUQEQGAr

— Amber Soler (@Amber_Soler) May 29, 2016

Here’s the rest of the video #cincinnatizoo #gorilla #harambe pic.twitter.com/fF2itjNbDx

— Amber Soler (@Amber_Soler) May 29, 2016

I lied. There is a little more not in the other two video. Third and final video #cincinnatizoo#gorilla#harambepic.twitter.com/dxV2P8Xf9M

— Amber Soler (@Amber_Soler) May 29, 2016

The Cincinnati Zoo just celebrated Harambe’s birthday on Friday:

Happy 17th birthday to silverback gorilla Harambe! https://t.co/FeITuw0hPb pic.twitter.com/FrfWUSKacV

— Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) May 27, 2016

Zoo officials reportedly made the decision to put down Harambre because they said the situation appeared to be life-threatening:

What do you think of this incident? Do you think it was handled well? Let us know your thoughts.