Authorities have wrapped up an investigation into an incident at the Cincinnati Zoo that ended with the killing of beloved gorilla after a child slipped into its enclosure, a prosecutor said Thursday.
The Cincinnati Police Department has turned over the probe to Hamilton County Prosecutor Joseph Deters for his review, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The department was considering possible criminal charges in its investigation that looked into how a 3-year-old boy managed to crawl through a barrier and fall into the gorilla’s exhibit, Cincinnati Police spokeswoman Tiffaney Hardy told TIME. Hardy said the family members of the boy who were with him at the time of the incident were the focus of the probe.
The police department did not disclose how many family members were supervising him at the time of the zoo visit. The boy’s mother, Michelle Gregg, can be heard panicking in a 911 call authorities released Wednesday. She told a police dispatcher a male gorilla was “standing over” her son and that the animal took hold of the child.
“My son fell in the zoo exhibit at the gorilla—at the Cincinnati zoo. My son fell in with the gorilla. There is a male gorilla standing over him,” she can be heard saying. “He’s dragging my son. I can’t watch this. I can’t watch.”
It’s unclear whether the police department recommended that charges be filed against her. A spokeswoman for the boy’s family said she did not have a comment about the end of the police probe Thursday.
Deters said he would conclude his review by Friday.
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