May 28, 2025

"The fact that he was bitten by an alligator significantly and continued on his rampage was shocking...."

Said Grady Judd, sheriff of Polk County, Florida, quoted in "Bitten by Alligator, Man Is Killed After Charging at Deputies, Sheriff Says/The authorities say that Timothy Schulz, 42, of Mulberry, Fla., swam across an alligator-filled lake before a violent encounter with deputies in the neighborhood" (NYT).

"Sheriff Judd also said that Mr. Schulz had a lengthy criminal history, which he described as 'meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest.'... At 7:43 a.m., a resident in a Polk County neighborhood called the sheriff’s office to say that a man was in a lake known to have alligators in it, and that the man was treading water near one of the broad-snouted reptiles.... 'It’s a long swim,' Sheriff Judd said. 'And he was gator-bitten along the way.'"

I note the phrase "one of the broad-snouted reptiles," which I believe is an example of the "second mention" problem in writing. The writer feels a need to avoid repetition of a word — here, "alligator" — and comes up with a variation. The example I gave in the old post at that link was of a woman who'd written "small house" and, on second mention, wrote "petite edifice."

The writer of that alligator article — had it gone on longer and required further struggle to escape the terrible (word) "alligator" — could have told us more about how the drug-addled man — the substance-impaired individual — tangled with the jawsome beast, the toothy predator, the swamp monster.

Sadly, the man is dead, an individual fatally shot by officers, a person deceased in a police encounter, a male victim of law enforcement action, a citizen killed in officer-involved incident....

82 comments:

Mary E. Glynn said...

You silly head. The substance goes right over your head as you busy yourself with the pretties of the writing. What a silly head you are.

Aggie said...

In this investigation, is the alligator considered an accessory?

Mary E. Glynn said...

Lol... Madison Wisconsin is a "remote outpost" in the Midwest. Nope, it's a smallish "city"... a moo u school neighborhood. Remote outpost is only if you're going outside to tinkle each morning, ma'am...

Money Manger said...

A most creative variation on "Suicide by Cop"

Just an old country lawyer said...

The broad snouted reptile will become an accessory only once he has been made into a handbag.

James said...

I like "swamp puppy" myself. If it was a crocodile would it have been "narrow-snouted reptile"?

RCOCEAN II said...

If this man had gotten medical treatement for his meth addiction, he'd probably still be alive. I can't access the article, so I dont know why "charging an officer" after getting bitten by an alligator should result in a person being shot to death.

Curious this in the NYTs. Seems more like a Daily Mail or NY Post article. I mean what's the Liberal/left angle? Police shooting? Concern for the alligators? It certainly isn't about this poor guy in Florida. I doubt the NYT readers care about him.

Ann Althouse said...

"I can't access the article, so I dont know why "charging an officer" after getting bitten by an alligator should result in a person being shot to death."

He was armed with garden shears. And he was acting irrationally, even after gator-bitten.

RCOCEAN II said...

broad snouted but narrow minded. I wonder about the word snout. Pigs and alligators have them. But who else? And who gets to have a nose, and who gets stuck with a snout.

I've rarely heard about a Dog's snout. What about horses, do they have snouts? they certainly don't have noses.

Eva Marie said...

Mr. Schulz, bloodied, emerged from the lake, crossing between houses, Sheriff Judd said. Witnesses told deputies he was trying to break into a vehicle and carrying a pair of garden shears. One person said that Mr. Schulz immediately charged at deputies with the shears when they arrived, Sheriff Judd said.
Deputies commanded Mr. Schulz to drop the shears. They twice tried to subdue him by discharging a Taser but, according to Sheriff Judd, it had no effect.

Then came the final escalation.

Mr. Schulz climbed into the passenger seat of a sheriff’s office cruiser and tried to remove either a rifle or a shotgun from its holder, the authorities said. At that moment, the two deputies, including a trainee, opened fire, killing Mr. Schulz.

“He was bizarre,” Sheriff Judd said. “Our deputies, by the way, are going home safe tonight.”

RCOCEAN II said...

"He was armed with garden shears."

Thanks. I suppose assault with an agricultural instrument can justify the use of deadly force.

RCOCEAN II said...

Thanks for more details Eva. So he was really shot for trying to get a policeman's gun and use it. Makes sense to shoot him then. Too bad, he was obviously high on meth and needed treatment.

Clyde said...

He stopped loving meth today…

Amadeus 48 said...

The man was chomped by a potential handbag, an exotic-skinned pair of shoes on the hoof, a UFla mascot, a Matt "Gator" Gaetz acolyte.

gilbar said...

hmmm...
resisting arresting fighting with gators.. and;
meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest..

makes you ALMOST Wonder; if maybe, just MAYBE.. Drugs were involved?
nah!

Quaestor said...

Well, damn! Shot by the cops, was he? I hoped he had been devoured by the saurian, eaten by entity, gobbled by the gator, made sushi by the suchian, consumed by the crocodilian, and munched by the mugger.

Kevin said...

The alligator was performing a reptilian arrest.

gilbar said...

some guy, that's REALLY NOT familiar with meth, said:
"If this man had gotten medical treatement for his meth addiction, he'd probably still be alive."

nope!
if this man had gotten medical treatement for his meth addiction; he'd PROBABLY relapse immediately..
Actually; he'd probably keep using meth DURING his treatment.

at least, that's the way it was with the people *i* knew
(which, was LOTS of addicts)

Quaestor said...

Grady Judd is the most sheriff of our county sheriffs. He does a marvellous job of turning arrest reports into sermons. His YouTubes are fab, particularly when he takes a snooty journalist to the moral woodshed.

n.n said...

Filleted by the floater, selfie-aborted by his Choice, in a green, drug-adled deal.

boatbuilder said...

The headline writers deserve immense credit for not inserting "Florida" before "...man bitten."

BUMBLE BEE said...

No mention of his being tazed?

Iman said...

Meth-addled Timmy
Teh gator got yo’ jimmy
Sheriff Grady sez it was a shame
But that tweaker was the only one to blame

Leland said...

If only Democrats can recreate the summer of 2020 with a new variant of Covid and peaceful protests against police brutality...

Aggie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
BUMBLE BEE said...

Drug crazed offenders often present as invinceable as a King Tiger tank.

Iman said...

Good one, Clyde @7:33am!

Quaestor said...

For those who don't know, a mugger is a species of crocodile native to the Indian subcontinent and noted for its propensity to attack humans, called a magar in Hindi or mugger in the language of the Raj, and the likely origin of the now infrequent slang term for a highwayman, a stick-up artist, a thug, a dacoit, a reaver, a cracksman.

Jaq said...

I think that on balance, the second mention guideline is useful, it provides an excuse and opportunity to bring in more information, but it's not an iron law, and I am not sure that the extra tidbit about alligators having broad snouts compared to crocodiles is a particularly well chosen one.

Birches said...

Lol. Thank you Althouse.

Iman said...

“Drop teh garden shears, or you will be shot to death!”

FormerLawClerk said...

It's funny to me how the NY Times operates. The author of this story claims to be an investigative journalist, working in Washington DC. In his Times bio, he cites first his transportation-related stories ... such as how highways are racist (or something).

He has zero Florida experience or first-hand knowledge. He's from Georgia, via South Dakota.

He claims to have a group Pulitzer Prize for coverage of COVID19.

So what is this guy doing writing a local crime piece - a Florida Man piece? It's analogous to tasking Bob Woodward to write an advertorial.

Aggie said...

Amos Moses would like a word

Bart Hall (Kansas, USA) said...

"Sadly, the man is dead, an individual fatally shot by officers, a person deceased in a police encounter, a male victim of law enforcement action, a citizen killed in officer-involved incident...."

Psychotic Jerk ... FIFY

Perhaps "pining for the fjords" -- no 'gators there.

Quaestor said...

"Too bad, he was obviously high on meth and needed treatment."

He got the most effective treatment available, did he not?

Jaq said...

Quaestor, whose comments I always read, gives us le mot juste for a first rate second mention.

"At 7:43 a.m., a resident in a Polk County neighborhood called the sheriff’s office to say that a man was in a lake known to have alligators in it, and that the man was treading water near one of the broad-snouted saurians."

It didn't go far enough.

Birches said...

Broad snouted reptiles and really the whole paragraph seem to fit the NYP voice. I actually went back to double check where the article appeared

robother said...

I notice that Sheriff Grady suffers no embarrassment about the dreaded second mention in his description of the perp's arrest record: "meth arrest, meth arrest, meth arrest..." Well, at least we can say he died doing what he loved.

Quaestor said...

"...I am not sure that the extra tidbit about alligators having broad snouts compared to crocodiles is a particularly well chosen one."

Taxonomically, broad-snouted reptile describes a duck as much as it describes an alligator.

Iman said...

And while you're swimming chomp steady
Chomp steady, gator
Let's call this thing exactly what it is
(What it is, what it is, what it is)
It's a funky and low down feeling (What it is)
Lose your left leg and then your right (What it is)

Mary E. Glynn said...

Ann Althouse said...
"I can't access the article, so I dont know why "charging an officer" after getting bitten by an alligator should result in a person being shot to death."

He was armed with garden shears. And he was acting irrationally, even after gator-bitten.
-------
Taser would have handled that...
Female cops? Minority hires? They panicked. Don't cheer them.

n.n said...

This is the second mention of an alligator attack in as many days.

Mary E. Glynn said...

Eva Marie said...
Mr. Schulz, bloodied, emerged from the lake, crossing between houses, Sheriff Judd said. Witnesses told deputies he was trying to break into a vehicle and carrying a pair of garden shears. One person said that Mr. Schulz immediately charged at deputies with the shears when they arrived, Sheriff Judd said.
Deputies commanded Mr. Schulz to drop the shears. They twice tried to subdue him by discharging a Taser but, according to Sheriff Judd, it had no effect.

Then came the final escalation.

Mr. Schulz climbed into the passenger seat of a sheriff’s office cruiser and tried to remove either a rifle or a shotgun from its holder, the authorities said. At that moment, the two deputies, including a trainee, opened fire, killing Mr. Schulz.

“He was bizarre,” Sheriff Judd said. “Our deputies, by the way, are going home safe tonight.”

5/28/25, 7:27 AM
--------
This is the MEAT of the story.
Ann got distracted by the tasty edibles meant as dessert fare.

Mary E. Glynn said...

RCOCEAN II said...
Thanks for more details Eva. So he was really shot for trying to get a policeman's gun and use it. Makes sense to shoot him then.
--------
Oh ann.
I hope the little tips you garner are worth the price of your reputation as a thinker. You are playing a sillyhead just to make more money to finance meade's trips? It can't be that bad having your husband around... can it?

mikee said...

Could have been worse, he could have survived the encounters with the reptilian swampdoggies and local suicide-by-cop squad, and been left horribly maimed and still a meth addict.

Eva Marie said...

“if this man had gotten medical treatement for his meth addiction; he'd PROBABLY relapse immediately..
Actually; he'd probably keep using meth DURING his treatment.”
Which is why the critics of RFKJr should stop referring to his former drug addiction in such a sneering condescending manner. Granted it wasn’t meth he was addicted to. Nevertheless he stopped using drugs and that’s quite an accomplishment for him and for everyone else who stops using (or quits their reliance on narcotic stimulation as per the theme of this post).

Quaestor said...

"I am not sure that the extra tidbit about alligators having broad snouts compared to crocodiles is a particularly well chosen one."

How about the once-endangered and now abundant amniote?

mindnumbrobot said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
mindnumbrobot said...

Quaestor said... "Grady Judd is the most sheriff of our county sheriffs."

Wayne Ivey of Brevard County is no slouch either.

As for the creative writing, I guess I understand the impulse of the reporter to pretty things up. But in the end, an alligator is just an alligator.

Quaestor said...

"The fact that he was bitten by an alligator significantly and continued on his rampage was shocking…"

I find an insignificant alligator bite to be a difficult concept. The mortality rate for Florida 'gators up to age five is really high, 90% or more, which means a bite incident most likely involves a five-footer (I'm struggling with the dreaded second mention problem, if you haven't noticed) or larger.

This is a seven.

Temujin said...

The author could have simply described it as a Florida Man incident.

Paul said...

"Sadly, the man is dead, an individual fatally shot by officers, a person deceased in a police encounter, a male victim of law enforcement action, a citizen killed in officer-involved incident...."

Why are you saying that? I say GOOD RIDDIANCE, thank you officer, and give the Alligator a hotdog as a thank you. Just one less serial felon to jail.

Quaestor said...

"In this investigation, is the alligator considered an accessory?"

It depends on whether the shoes match the luggage.

Big Mike said...

Sadly, the man is dead

Sadly? What is it with liberals and your hero-worship of hardened criminals? He deliberately turned himself into a menace to the safety of ordinary people and thanks to the deputies that menace is removed.

Old and slow said...

Cheering the death of a man because he was a drug addict reveals a serious flaw in the character of the person doing the cheering.

Quaestor said...

This is a ten.

Rocco said...

Ann Althouse said…
l note the phrase ‘one of the broad-snouted reptiles,’ which I believe is an example of the ‘second mention’ problem in writing.

Or the writer could have gone with gator. Much more concise.

Jupiter said...

"jawsome" is cute, but that's not how "-some" works. "Handsome" means you'd like to get your hands on it. "Toothsome" means you'd like to bite into it. In "awesome", "bothersome" and "loathsome", it means "giving rise to". I would guess Germanic origin. I suppose l'll need to look it up. I do not mean I'll ask GrokGPT.

Rocco said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jupiter said...

"No mention of his being tazed?".
I'm afraid my eyes are getting worse. I read that as "No mention of his being taxed?". Which made perfect sense to me.

Jupiter said...

" a person deceased in a police encounter, a male victim of law enforcement action, a citizen killed in officer-involved incident...."
I'm going to guess that he wasn't black. Because if he had been, Benjamin Crump would now be suing the Florida Department of Fish and Wildlife. With the little widow at his side, making gang signs.

Wince said...

Althouse said...
I note the phrase "one of the broad-snouted reptiles," which I believe is an example of the "second mention" problem in writing... Sadly, the man is dead, an individual fatally shot by officers, a person deceased in a police encounter, a male victim of law enforcement action, a citizen killed in officer-involved incident...

The same problem applies to...

Dead Parrots.

Rocco said...

Quaestor said...
This is a ten.

This is unambiguously a ten: https://data.textstudio.com/output/sample/animated/9/7/4/2/10-2-12479.gif

The Drill SGT said...

On Amity Island, we call them large fish

BudBrown said...

Watch a video of Judd's talk and he pauses significantly after significantly. Also says is shocking not was. Local rag got it right and put commas around significantly. Judd is local TV's go-to guy for explaining criminal events in Polk. He's on TV a lot.

Big Mike said...

@Old and slow (but mostly slow), the man’s death is neither an occasion for happiness nor sadness. Once an individual starts down a dangerous path, and stays on it long enough, certain endings become almost inevitable. In this man’s case the dominant emotion should be relief, that he did not take a deputy or, worse, an innocent civilian with him. Meth addicts are extremely dangerous individuals when high. Lucky you thst neither you nor any friend found that out the hard way.

stunned said...

One criminal less. Good job.

Aggie said...

"On Amity Island, we call them large fish .."

Well...'It's a beautiful day, the beaches are open, and people are having a wonderful time. And as you know, 'Amity' means friendship !'

Jaq said...

Ha ha, the AI Podcast generator took Althouse's post, took out all of the good parts, and turned it, well, the best I can put it, What NPR would have done.

Scientific Socialist said...

NYT tries to make it into something other than just another "Florida Man" story...

Old and slow said...

Sadly, I know plenty about meth addicts and how they behave. I also know that they are human beings. If you delight in or take satisfaction in another person's misery and death, then you are undeserving of respect.

Duke Dan said...

Sounds like the Donut Operator video will be coming for this one.

TML said...

"Po-Po popped"

FullMoon said...

"Meth addicts are extremely dangerous individuals when high."

So are alcohol addicts, maybe more so.

mikeski said...

Early in my time at the Brooklyn DA's Office, I was standing up on a case and the Judge was reading the complaint:

"Let's see...you pointed a gun at _________ and demanded his money, then hit him in the head after he gave it to you. Then, you fought with the officers when they arrested you.

"Young man, these are some very serious allegations."

Accused: "Well, Y'Honor, I'm a very serious alligator."

I am not making this up; it actually happened.

Ampersand said...

Reports such as this are dealing with a denouement, because nobody found the setup interesting.. This is the down side of freedom. We barely notice people as they exercise their rights of self destruction.

Rusty said...

Ya think it was the meth?

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

The toothy, short-limbed, long-tailed crocodilian

Ralph L said...

I hope the alligator didn't develop a taste for meth.

Tina Trent said...

You failed to mention the important details: that the man was not in the water when he was shot; that he was trying to break into a car armed with garden shears after residents had tried to save him; that he attacked the police with that weapon (assault of officers with a deadly weapon); that he couldn't be tazed into submission, and that he tried to grab a shotgun from the police (attempted assault of police with a shotgun). ONLY then did they shoot him. Then you write:

"Sadly, the man is dead, an individual fatally shot by officers, a person deceased in a police encounter, a male victim of law enforcement action, a citizen killed in officer-involved incident..."

I get what you think you're doing. But the reporter didn't write this way. Maybe you think this is just funny fisking, even in the current atmosphere of anti-cop hatred. The Times actually just reported the facts. You call the assailant a victim. You obscure crucial facts to play a word game with other people's lives.

When my husband gets a call in the middle of the night to walk a cop though the aftermath of a shooting, the cops, be they 21 or 41, are always devastated. They just had to shoot someone who was holding his bloodied wife in front of him as a human shield, pointing a gun at her head, then their heads. They just got shot at trying to serve a warrant at a child molester's house and don't want to get killed but don't know where the children are. The just pulled bloodied bodies from a car accident where they still don't know which person was doing 110 miles an hour and mowing people down and might be high and armed.

And a whole lot worse. Also, fuck you, Rcocean II. None of this, as presented, is appropriate. Sheriff Polk, his men, and the courageous neighbors are owed an apology for such contemptuous toying with their lives.

Rusty said...

Yeah, but the alligators OK, right?

Eva Marie said...

@FullMoon: that’s a good point. The meth addicts are in your face and very scary when they are encountered. The alcohol addicts are hidden from view until they smash into your car.

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