Elephant Charges at Man and Toddler Taking Selfie at Zoo

AN elephant charged at a man who jumped the fence of its enclosure to take a selfie with his toddler.

Shocked onlookers screamed as an elephant charged towards a man and his child after scaling the security fence to “take a selfie.”

Jose Navarrete, 25, ducked under wires and scaled security fences to get up close to the huge animal at a zoo in San Diego, California. The visit to the zoo almost ended in disaster as the animal charged towards them.

In the terrifying and dangerous incident, Navarrete then dropped his daughter on the way out, grabbing her as the elephant was approaching. The police quickly arrested Navarrete and he was held on bail under investigation of child endangerment.

Before the incident, which was captured on video by an onlooker, witness Lori Ortale told Fox San Diego that she heard a woman begging Navarrete not to enter the enclosure.

“You hear this woman yelling, ‘Jose, stop. Jose, stop, and he jumps the fence and then he goes through the elephant enclosure, and he’s got his little girl with him who, I don’t know, had to be under two,” she said.

“We told him to get out and he turned around and he saw it, thankfully, just in time.”

Matthew Passiglia told NBC 7 the elephant became angry very quickly when seeing the man entering the enclosure.

“The elephant roared. It was a big roar. [The elephant] stuck its head up in the air and its tusks and he started trotting toward them. He runs, throws his baby through the gate and it’s seconds from hitting him.

“He jumps through the gate, falls on the ground and then it roared. The baby starts crying and people were just mad at this guy.”

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