The Harry Country Police Department shared a public update on social media revealing that an 11-foot alligator pulled a resident into the pond and killed them on Friday at the Myrtle Beach Golf and Yacht Club near Burgess.
Police notified the family of the victim and later disclosed to the public that the man who was killed was 75-year-old, Michael Burstein.
The coroner’s office said he died from drowning and a spokeswoman for the Harry Country Police Department, Mikayla Moskov, said that the HCPD’s Environmental Services and Criminal Investigations divisions are investigating the incident.
My Horry News reported that the police responded to a 911 call around 11:45am leading them to the area of Excalaber Court, and “upon arrival, units determined that an alligator had taken hold of a neighbor and retreated into a nearby retention pond.”
Moskov said authorities recovered Burstein’s body from the pond and that the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources biologists and SCDNR-contracted alligator removal services determined the alligator should be euthanized.
Locals say that alligators have been walking across the Myrtle Beach Golf and Yacht Club for years and often get widespread attention and media coverage.
Jason Repak lives in the neighborhood said, “They are 12 to 14-foot alligators and they are big. We’ve never gone anywhere close to them.When we walk the dogs near that pond, we walk them in the median. We don’t walk them on that bank because you just don’t know where they’re lurking. You will never know where they’re lurking.”
Repak continued by saying it’s an absolutely tragic situation that his neighbor died.
“As far as I know, most neighbors have always treated the alligators with a healthy respect and almost like part of the community. This is just a tragedy that nobody would have expected,” he told ABC News.