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CNN Live Sunday

Shark Kills 10-Year-Old Boy in Virginia Beach

Aired September 02, 2001 - 16:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with the first fatal shark attack this year in the United States. The victim was only 10 years old and he died early this morning. People are especially shocked because of where it happened, Virginia Beach, that's a place that has not had a reported shark attack in decades. CNN's Patty Davis is in Virginia Beach today with details for us -- Patty.

PATTY DAVIS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Donna, this is Sand Bridge Beach, it's part of Virginia Beach. This is just off of where I'm standing, where the attack occurred about 6:00 last night, a fatal attack for 10-year-old David Peltier.

Now, he was surfing with his father and the rest of his family in about four feet of water, and the shark, witnesses say, grabbed onto him. His father realized what was happening, tried to pry open the jaws of the shark, that being unsuccessful hit the shark on the head and get it to loosen its grip on his son.

Now, here are some of the witness who saw what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could actually see him fighting off the shark and sort of pushing the shark away and pulling the kid.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it was a darker water than normally. Then we realized it was blood in the water.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DAVIS: Now, David did die earlier this morning, about -- right before 4:00 a.m. An artery in his leg had been severed, had lost an awful lot of blood.

Now, Virginia Beach officials did open this beach, as you can see behind me, there are plenty of people here today. They are saying they searched by land, by air, with helicopters looking for more sharks, they also had 40 divers go into the water looking for any evidence in this area of more sharks. They have turned up nothing, so the beaches do remain open.

However, they are alerting lifeguards here to watch for rough waters, to watch for fins in the waters. Also, they are telling people who are swimming here to make sure that you are also alert, in case you see something only swim in a life-guarded area. And people that I have talked to around here, the beach goers here say that there are a few less people here today, not many, but not many people in the water at all. They say they are cautiously waiting just to see what turns up, anymore sharks -- Donna.

KELLEY: Well, that's one of the things I was going to ask you about, Patty. We can see the people behind you, but as you look up and down the beach and show us there, are people in the water?

DAVIS: There are very, very few people in the water. I think I spotted just a couple. I talked to a couple of people who said they have gone in the water, but they are only wading into the water. Now, if you consider how far David and his father and his brothers were out in that water, which is about 50 feet, by a sandbar, certainly nobody out that far, only people going up to about their waste height today, because they are nervous -- Donna.

KELLEY: OK, Patty Davis, thanks very much.

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