Alligator Farm employee fired after tweets of wanting to toss 'Kent State gun girl' in alligator pit

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — A St. Augustine Alligator Farm zookeeper was fired Wednesday morning after tweeting his desire to push "Kent State gun girl," Kaitlin Bennett into an alligator pit, The Daily Caller reported.

Bennett came into the public eye when she posed with an AR-10 in her graduation photos. Since then, Bennett has received attention on social media as a Second Amendment activist.

The Daily Caller reported just two days after Bennett's visit to the St. Augustine Alligator Farm, employee Ethan Patterson tweeted about seeing her and his desire to toss her in the alligator pit.

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Patterson wrote in a since-deleted tweet, "I just want y'all to know that Kent State gun girl came to my place of work and it took everything in me to not push her over the railing into the mouths of 250 hungry alligators."

Patterson has since tweeted that he was fired from the Alligator Farm.

In a statement obtained by Action News Jax, zoo director John Brueggen confirmed the employee was terminated for an "inappropriate Tweet, in which he made threatening remarks regarding a recent visitor."

"Although, we feel certain there was never any real threat of physical harm, the offended party took the matter very seriously, as do we. We are committed to treating our guest with the utmost respect and found this incident to be inexcusable," Brueggen said.

"We recognize that people have the right to communicate on social media, however, reckless behavior can clearly have unfortunate consequences, and any message that disparages our zoo guests or our business cannot be tolerated."

Cox Media Group