The mystery remains as to what happened at the SF Zoo on Christmas Day, but slowly the full story perhaps is being revealed.

According to a new published report of Thursday, January 3, 2008, in the San Francisco Chronicle, at least one eyewitness has come forth to describe what happened before the tiger attack of Christmas Day.

Below are the witness quotations from that account. You can visit the hyperlink noted to read the complete article, if you wish. However, I am only sharing here what the witness says she saw. I have expunged all the rest, such as the logically biased spin from the brothers’ attorney or the rationalizations and opinion from officials, including the zoo director, publicity guru, and the law enforcement spokesperson.

The essence of what the witness says she saw can be judged without the hearsay and secondhand thoughts and opinions of others:

Two victims of a lethal Christmas Day tiger attack were harassing the big cats at the San Francisco Zoo shortly before a 350-pound feline escaped its enclosure and mauled them, a woman told The Chronicle on Wednesday [January 2, 2008].

The revelation comes as the zoo reopens Wednesday, nine days after a visitor was killed and two of his friends were injured by the Siberian tiger, later shot dead by police.

Jennifer Miller, who was at the zoo with her husband and two children that ill-fated Christmas afternoon, said she saw four young men at the big-cat grottos – and three of them were teasing the lions a short time before the tiger’s bloody rampage that killed 17-year-old Carlos Sousa Jr.

“The boys, especially the older one, were roaring at them. He was taunting them,” the San Francisco woman said. “They were trying to get that lion’s attention. … The lion was bristling, so I just said, ‘Come on, let’s get out of here’ because my kids were disturbed by it.”

She said Sousa – whom she later recognized from his photo in the newspaper – was not heckling. The Chronicle contacted Miller after learning that she and her family had seen the young men at the zoo Christmas Day.

Miller, who said she visits the zoo with her relatives every Christmas, said the young men stood out because she has seen mostly families there. Although authorities have said Sousa was accompanied only by San Jose brothers Paul Dhaliwal, 19, and Kulbir Dhaliwal, 23, Miller said four young men were together when she came across them.

* * *

Miller called the behavior she witnessed by the victims “disturbing.”

Her family was looking at the lions when the young men stopped beside them at the big-cat grottos – five outdoor exhibits attached to the Lion House. The young men started roaring at the lions and acting “boisterous” to get their attention, said Miller, who added that she watched the four for five minutes or so a little after 4 p.m.

“It was why we left,” she said. “Their behavior was disturbing. They kept doing it.”
Sousa refrained from such tactics, Miller said.

“He wasn’t roaring. He wasn’t taunting them,” she recalled. “He kept looking at me apologetically like, ‘I’m sorry, I know we are being stupid.’ ”

When a friend told Miller about the attacks – first reported to 911 dispatchers at 5:07 p.m. – she called police the day after Christmas to tell them what she had seen. She called back Wednesday because she was wondering why news accounts mentioned only three young men.

* * *
Zoo reopening today

What’s happening: The San Francisco Zoo reopens today for the first time since the fatal Christmas Day tiger attack.

What to expect: New signs (see below) that forbid animal harassment and loudspeakers that will alert visitors to the park’s closing time. The Lion House and big cat exhibit will be closed to the public, as will the Terrace Cafe. ~ by Patricia Yollin, Tanya Schevitz, Kevin Fagan, Chronicle Staff Writers; Jaxon Van Derbeken and Steve Rubenstein contributed to this report. “S.F. Zoo visitor saw 2 victims of tiger attack teasing lions,”This article appeared on page A – 1 of the San Francisco Chronicle.