Video of news story here:
http://www.kvbc.com/Global/story.asp?S=9718863&nav=15MUCBSd
A Las Vegas toddler was pulled from the jaws of an 18-foot-long, 300 lb snake.
"That was the only thing I was thinking was I need to try and save this kid's life," neighbor Marlo Vinson said. Vinson was the first neighbor in the apartment complex to try and help the toddler's mother free him from the snake's grasp.
"That's when I saw the 3-year-old on his knees with the snake constricted around him," Metro's Sergeant Steve Custer explained. "I've been a police officer for 36 years and I've never seen anything like this ever."
Custer was one of the first officers on scene. "It's the biggest thing I've ever seen, with a big old head and it's angry and it's hissing."
The toddler's mother told Metro that while she was in the bathroom, her son entered the bedroom where the snake was being kept. "The snake bit him, right here like in the armpit," said Custer. "
The boy's mother stabbed the giant 325 pound python 17 times until it released him. Moments later, police arrived. "So we're thinking maybe it's dead, so we crack the door and look in there... oh, here's this big old snake," explained Custer.
The half a dozen officers decided to wait for animal control. "We're trying to get that little hook on the snake and finally we get it on there and then the fight is on," Custer continued. "It was incredible, we were rolling around on the bed on the floor back and forth every body has a piece of the snake."
"They grab you and then they pull you into the coils and coil you," Jim Tracy, manager at Pet Kingdom, said. "Every time you breathe in, they constrict harder and harder until you can't breathe."
All constrictors are non-venomous snakes, but they will bite their prey and hold on until they can get wrapped around and suffocate their meal.
Tracy says that most snake attacks are caused by people just not paying attention. "The snake is the victim because it paid the price for people's negligence."
Because of its injuries, animal control was forced to put the tiger python down. At this time, authorities are still deciding whether or not to file child endangerment charges against the 3-year-old's mother.
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...OUTLAW