ORLANDO, FL – After thirty-three years in prison, a daring escape, and a high-speed chase, SeaWorld’s prize orca, Tilikum, has committed suicide-by-cop, rather than return to his maximum security tank.
“Son of a bitch made me do it,” said officer Evan Williamson, covering his eyes with the palm of his hand. “Why couldn’t he just put down the gun?”
Well-documented in the documentary ‘Blackfish’, Tilikum’s decades of depressed and erratic behaviour came to an end after he escaped his compound at SeaWorld, stole a 2008 Nissan XTerra, and led law enforcement into a shootout at a warehouse in the suburbs of Orlando.
“He just kept shouting that he wasn’t ever going back,” said Williamson, whose partner received non-lethal bullet and fin wounds during the encounter. “Poor bastard.”
This is the first time that one of SeaWorld’s orcas has committed suicide by cop, as the depressed whales usually either hang themselves, overdose on pills, or jump into the piranha tank instead.
