The story of Harambe the gorilla who was shot after a young boy fell into his enclosure has been all anyone’s been talking about this week. And with good reason. The gorilla’s death seemingly could have been avoided had the parents of the boy just been paying closer attention to their son.
Now audio of the mother, Michelle Gregg, calling 911 has been released and it shows just how harrowing of an ordeal it was once she discovered her young boy was inside the enclosure with 17-year-old Harambe.
It starts out relatively calm with Gregg telling emergency services, “My son fell in the zoo exhibit at the gorilla — at the Cincinnati Zoo. My son fell in with gorilla. There is a male gorilla standing over him. I need someone to contact the zoo, please.”
But once Harambe reaches her son the terror in her voice becomes very apparent. “He’s dragging my son. I can’t watch this,” she tells the dispatcher.
Luckily the boy did survive with relatively minor injuries, but the parents have been under heavy fire both from the public as well as the police who performed an investigation into their actions. The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that no charges against them will be filed, however.