For three days, Mike Gulley of Florida City fed monkeys that escaped from the Mannheimer Foundation, which breeds and sells the animals for research.

On Saturday, he shot and killed a monkey sitting on a tree near his house because, he said, police officers told him it carried the AIDS virus.

Robert Rubin, the University of Miami's vice provost for research, has been trying to spread the word that the monkeys are disease-free and harmless if left alone. They could not carry the AIDS virus, Rubin said.

He said that of the 300 monkeys that got away from the university's Perrine Primate Center as a result of Hurricane Andrew, all but 15 had been recaptured by Sunday night. Thirty were found shot to death, he said.

The Mannheimer Foundation, east of Gulley's house, lost 1,500 monkeys and baboons. Nearly 700 have been recovered, said Theodore Malinin, its director.

Rubin said he had eyewitness reports that Metro-Dade police, Florida City police and National Guardsmen were shooting the monkeys out of trees.

Metro-Dade police said there was no order to shoot the animals, but police officers can protect themselves if threatened.