Overview
- A traffic stop on Interstate 310 after an earlier I-10 crash escalated when the 40-year-old driver, identified as Victor M. Rivas, ran into nearby marshland and was bitten by an alligator on Sunday.
- Bodycam video released by the St. Charles Parish Sheriff’s Office shows the suspect struggling with the reptile as auxiliary deputies pursued him through the swamp.
- Drone pilots located the injured man at the tree line and deputies arrested him; he was taken to a hospital with non-life-threatening wounds and then placed in custody.
- Rivas faces charges of driving under the influence and resisting an officer, and separate reporting says warrants have been issued tied to a prior Jefferson Parish crash.
- The sheriff’s office paired the evidence release with a viral, tongue-in-cheek social-media post about the alligator while urging people not to drive impaired, flee deputies, or hide in hazardous wetlands, underscoring public-safety and policing tools such as drones and bodycams.