Police investigate parents of boy rescued from gorilla at Cincinnati Zoo

The zoo clearly needs to have better and more established, exercised emergency management plans in place. You don't wait for a crisis to figure out what to do.Once the kid was in the moat it was too late to do anything about criminally negligent design failures or bad parenting, but the staff did not even immediately clear the area. That should have been the first order of business–clear all non-Zoo personnel out of the area. It wouldn't necessarily have mitigated the need for shooting but it seems to have been, in part, the screaming of the spectators that ramped up the tension and agitated the gorilla.

Tragic event that was handled correctly. Everyone feels bad, changes to the enclosure will certainly be made, and hopefully this type of thing won't ever happen again. Why has our society turned into one that looks to publicly humiliate after a tragedy? I'm sad the animal had to die. That's heartbreaking. Even worse, in my mind, would be if the kid had died. Regardless of fault, no one wants to see a kid suffer. Maybe the mom was negligent, but without all the facts in place, each one of us is left to assume the circumstances. Be thankful the kid is safe. Be sad the gorilla was killed. Leave the rest to the investigation.

The zoo, and a very old zoo with 1.6M visitors annually either had this happen before or a maintinence gap left an opportunity for the kid to enter the enclosure. Bad parenting or the lack of it allowed this bo to do as he pleased not aware of any dangers.

The gorilla grabbed the boy after he fell into the moat and a real actively tame wild animal is unpredictable.

That was a ilverbacked gorilla. That boy is lucky to be alive. He hay not have intentionally harmed the boy if the matter was handled differently but it takes only a second for that gorilla to fatally harm the boy.

Tragic event that was handled correctly.

One thing witnesses, even the zoo director, can agree on is that the scene surrounding the incident as a 'mess' which quickly deteriorated with the gorilla becoming more aggressive as the clamor and screaming from the crowd grew in intensity. All bystanders did was aggravate the situation. They should have been forced to leave if they didn’t self vacate.

"gorilla becoming more aggressive as the clamor and screaming from the crowd grew in intensity"

That alone was mostly likely the cause of this tragic ending. If not for that, this might have been one of those happy-feeling endings, with the gorilla saving the boy.

@Lizz - You're so right... but self vacate?! In this day and age? When my friends on Facebook and Youtube and Twitter need to see? Even though it's called sharing... the world has become a very selfish place.

Why was there only a three foot high fence and a bush between the leering crowds and the Gorillas? What's to stop Harambe's pals from breaking out of the enclosure?

The parents should have kept tabs on a 3 year old, not let him wander off. Whoever is to blame the only one who really suffered was Harambe.

Dash It was not the gorillas fault. How does any one know that the Gorillas was not rescuing the Child from the mote by its an instincts of protection its happened before . The Gorilla no matter the outcome should not have been shot. The Parents are directly responsible and to blame for this. No excuses ,no arguments this is murder of a primate that has shown it cared enough to get the kid out of the mote without injuring it so why was the order given to shoot .

Lizz:

" It wouldn't necessarily have mitigated the need for shooting but it seems to have been, in part, the screaming of the spectators that ramped up the tension and agitated the gorilla. "

I agree. I watched the video, and I was horrified by the hysterical screaming of the crowd. Clearly the last thing anybody would want is to excite the animal in this situation. Have the visitors no common sense at all?

Zoos are your babysitters. It should be expected that a large proportion of visitors to zoos are children. It should not be difficult to construct child proof barriers so that they do not fall in with the animals. Obviously this zoo remiss.

Poor Harumbe.

@Ron Barnes - I agree.

the investigation will look at the parents’ actions leading up to the incident

From reports I've read, only the child's mother was at the zoo. If both parents were present, one of them should have been paying more attention to the whereabouts of that child.

whem there are older brothers or sisters are together, don't they yell if younger one crumb to wired fence?

Parents are sort of at fault for this, but to charge them is comically absurd