Florida fisherman, 71, tried to run from a 12ft alligator but slipped moments before it dragged him into a lake

Steven Hamilton had just landed a bass and was posing for a photo beside Lake Apopka in Winter Garden's Dr Bradford Memorial Park when he heard the reptile leave the water. Friend Jason Handley, 37, believes the gator was after the fish. Onlookers hurled traffic cones at it but kept back from a lake he called 'infested'. A medical examiner ruled the death an accident caused by a leg injury and drowning.

Hamilton spent almost 40 years playing in Orlando's Bone Brothers Band.

Searchers took two hours to recover his body from a lake holding over 4,600 alligators.

Days earlier, Handley 'bonked' a gator with a net and warned someone would get 'ate'.