When a 400-pound gorilla grabbed a 3-year-old boy at the Cincinnati Zoo, the sharpshooter who killed the ape wasn't from the police. The Cincinnati Zoo has said tranquillizers wouldn't have worked quickly enough to end the danger to the boy, who suffered scrapes but was rescued. Instead, the shooter was a specially trained zoo staffer on one of the many dangerous-animal emergency squads at animal parks nationwide. The Phoenix Zoo's dangerous animals response team — or DART — takes annual marksmanship tests, trains at the firing range three additional times a year, and practices loading and unloading firearms, Wagner said. The North Carolina Zoo's team includes only senior animal-care staffers because of their knowledge of animal behavior, Ireland said.

Source: ABC News June 03, 2016 04:52 UTC