From yesterday’s Chronicle,
“The tiger killed Souza immediately, then chased Paul Dhaliwal about 300 yards to the zoo’s Terrace Cafe and was in the process of attacking him when the officers arrived. Plainclothes partners Oshita and Biggs were in one car, and uniformed officers O’Leary and Kroos were in another. The first calls came in just after 5 p.m. The initial radio broadcast indicated that a zoo patron had been bitten by “an exotic animal.”
“I thought it must have been some other animal, something small, like just a small bite that needed to be handled,” Oshita said.
In any case, they responded to the zoo as quickly as possible and learned immediately that a tiger was on the loose. Oshita and Biggs went to the tiger enclosure, where they found Souza. It was not a pretty sight, the officers recalled. Gruesome, in fact, they said.
The officers’ faces went white at the memory of the scene. Dusk had settled by now, and they knew a man-killing tiger was on the loose, with plenty of places to hide… At about the same time, O’Leary and Kroos reached the cafe from a different direction. All four officers saw the same thing: Dhaliwal was sitting on the ground, legs extended in front of him, bleeding from the head and screaming for help. Tatiana was sitting in front of him, looking at him.
The officers - 35 yards away - yelled, whistled and tried to get the tiger’s attention. They wanted the animal to move away from her victim. The noise startled the tiger; she reared up on her back legs and started swatting at Dhaliwal, toying with him….
The officers could not shoot for fear of hitting the young man. They made more noise. Finally, the big cat turned and looked at Oshita, who was standing with his partner in front of their car.
“She looked angry,” Oshita said.
The tiger started toward the officers. By now, O’Leary and Kroos had made their way to the left of Oshita and Biggs.
Oshita said the tiger moved quickly - not running; more of a lope. Whatever, it was fast.
Oshita, who had his .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol drawn, fired three rounds. Two shots hit the tiger in the chest. Oshita said he could see the tiger’s hair part, as if someone had blown on it.
“The bullets didn’t even slow her down,” Oshita said. “She just had this look on her face like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ “
