Heroic father punches out alligator to save his son from the reptile's jaws



A terrified Florida father got into a fistfight with an eight-foot alligator Friday to save his son's life.

Joseph Welch and son Joey, 6, were on a canoe trip through the Loxahatchee Wildlife Refuge in Boynton Beach when the boy fell into the water and the waiting alligator's jaws.



'I heard these blood-curdling screams and I saw this gator that had his right arm in his jaw and I just freaked,' Joseph said.

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Joey fell out of his canoe and into an alligator's jaws

Father Joseph Welch beat a gator with his bare hands to save his son's life

Joseph told Local 10 that he immediately jumped into the water to save his son.

The alligator wasn't wasting time either.



'He just swam up to me and clamped my arm,' Joey said. 'He didn't wait for a second.'

Joseph feared a struggle could tear the boy apart.



Joey luckily survived without any major injuries

'I didn't want to play tug-of-war with the alligator and get his arm ripped off,' Joseph told WSVN 7. 'So I started punching the alligator on top of the head as hard as I could.'

Luckily an unidentified good Samaritan joined the man-versus-beast brawl and booted the alligator in the stomach.

Joey escaped with minor injuries and the gator was later tracked and killed by authorities because of its aggression.

The gator that attacked Joey was later killed for its aggressive behavior (stock image)

Once on the attack, alligators are relentless.



Kaleb Langdale, 17, had his arm bitten off by a ten-foot long alligator last summer.

'(I) knew I either got to lose this arm or I'm gonna die,' he told reporters.