Beloved gator served as community mascot until a trapper killed it: 'It's so upsetting'

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Dozens gathered around a South Carolina pond on a warm evening this month, some crying and others holding stuffed alligators and ribbons — mementos meant to honour Walter’s life. A few people who were close to Walter stood in front of the group to deliver speeches, including Rebekah Cole.

“It’s so upsetting that he was taken from us,” Cole recalled saying. “He was a part of our community, and it will never be the same.”

They held a moment of silence before turning on their cellphone flashlights and walking a few feet to the part of the pond where Walter, an alligator, sunbathed daily and kept to himself.

Residents of Daniel Island Village in Charleston said Walter was their community mascot for a dozen years. Walter lounged in or outside of a neighbourhood pond for hours most days, residents said, never bothering the people and dogs who walked by.

But this month, a trapper hired by the new company that manages the Daniel Island Village apartment complex lured Walter out of the pond and killed him, leaving dozens of residents grieving and confused by the property manager’s sudden decision to eliminate an animal that didn’t seem to bother anyone. They organized a vigil and are still searching for meaning in Walter’s death.

“It’s not a human. It’s not a dog. But it’s a sadness that just won’t go away,” Cole, 78, told The Washington Post through tears.

Neighbours weren’t sure what Walter’s gender was, but they said the 6 ½-foot-long alligator received its name when it appeared on Daniel Island in 2013. Walter often sunbathed in the vegetation or sat in the pond and perched its head on a patch of grass. In the spring, pollen covered Walter’s scaly frame, making the alligator appear albino, Cole said.

Many neighbours – including Cole and her black English Labrador, Finn – passed Walter multiple times per day while walking a path around the lake. Walter never lunged at pets, Cole said.

Susan Chapman said she moved to Daniel Island in March 2023 partly because she thought a community alligator was endearing.

“Everybody talks about Walter the gator,” said Chapman, 57.

Cole saw Walter every day for more than six years – other than when Walter hibernated in the winter – from the balcony of her two-bedroom apartment. She greeted Walter in the morning as she drank coffee, in the afternoon when she ate lunch and in the evenings when she drank red wine before dinner.

“The view is beautiful,” Cole said.

She clarified a second later: “Well, it was.”

On March 14, Walter was lounging by the pond when an animal trapper, Robert Vanwormer, approached it. Walter jumped into the water to flee, but Vanwormer managed to reel the alligator in with a treble hook on the end of his rod. Vanwormer, 53, told The Post he placed a noose around Walter’s neck and dragged the alligator out of the pond. One neighbor watching the scene called the Charleston Police Department, Cole said.

Vanwormer cut the back of Walter’s neck with a knife, he said, severing the alligator’s spine and giving the animal a quick death.

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Charleston police arrived on the scene about 15 minutes later. Lt. Anthony Gibson said in an email to The Post that Vanwormer had the appropriate state permit.

General Services Corporation, a property manager based in Richmond that neighbors said began supervising Daniel Island apartments in November, said in a letter to residents later that day that it had contacted the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources after Walter “was seen on our property grounds several times over the course of this past week.” The DNR “determined that euthanizing the alligator was the best way to minimize risk,” the letter said.

But Stephen Fastenau, spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, said in an email to The Post that it was the property management’s decision to kill Walter. The DNR issued the community a permit earlier this year to euthanize an alligator only if it posed issues, Fastenau said.

Vanwormer, who owns Southern Trappers, an animal removal business based in St. Stephen, South Carolina, said the property manager hired him. He said he distributed Walter’s meat to friends to eat.

General Services Corporation leaders did not respond to requests for comment.

Neighbors said General Services Corporation’s lack of justification for killing Walter has added to their ire.

“I don’t want management doing this again to another gator that’s not bothering anybody,” Chapman said.

On March 15, Cole said she pulled dead tomato plants and weeds out of her neighborhood’s herb garden, near the pond, to release her anger over Walter’s death. Neighbors organized a vigil that night through social media. One person made a graphic of Walter’s face placed over angel wings that said “In Loving Memory R.I.P. Walter 2013-2025.”

At the vigil, one person brought their stuffed alligator named Walter. Children painted a green alligator on a rock. After the speeches and moment of silence, about 50 people walked to the small oak tree Walter sat near. Cole tied a blue ribbon – her favorite color – to a wooden post there.

Afterward, Cole said she hurried to her apartment because she didn’t want to cry in front of the group. Then she went to a neighbor’s house, where she and others spoke about Walter for about 90 minutes while drinking wine.

When Cole sees a friend in the neighborhood now, she said, they ask the same question: “Why did it happen?” Cole said looking toward the pond from her balcony is too painful now.

“Every day I cry,” Cole said through tears Thursday. “I’m trying not to now.”

The following afternoon, however, Cole said she cried the entire time she walked Finn around the pond, missing Walter’s presence.