Cincinnati Zoo gorilla killing: Mother of boy who breached enclosure will not face charges

Prosecutor Joe Deters: 'A child scampering away, that is not foreseeable he will fall into the encampment'

The prosecutor said the zoo had no choice but to shoot Harambe (Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden)

The mother of the three-year-old boy who fell into a gorilla enclosure in Cincinnati Zoo will not face any charges, according to the local prosecution office.

Hamilton County prosecutor Joe Deters told reporters that the mother of four was not to blame for the incident, which led to the gorilla’s death and triggered a massive public backlash against the zoo’s actions and the mother.

But the prosecutor insisted there was nothing the mother could have done, as the incident took place “within seconds”, according to the witnesses.

“A child scampering away - it’s not foreseeable he will fall into the encampment," said Mr Deters.

“For people who have never had kids, children do that sometimes," he later added.

“[She is] A very attentive mother who simply turned her back to take care of another child and that child went through the fence."

He praised the mother’s attentiveness to her children and said that social services were “impressed” with the family environment. He said he did not think the child’s father had been interviewed at all.

“I think ultimately the child may need to get some kind of therapy to make sure he’s ok,” he said, referring to his experience in the enclosure.

Mr Deters said he was not swayed by the public reaction, but said he had never seen so much attention to a potential child endangerment case in his life.

“I’ve been a bit taken aback by some folks' moral equivalence of human life with animal life,” he said. "This is a beautiful little boy. Had they not acted and this animal behaved like some animals behave we could have had a genuine tragedy here."

He weighed the mother’s actions, witness accounts and police documents.

The three-year-old climbed over the low barrier to the gorilla enclosure, made his way through the bushes and fell 15 feet into a moat. He was unhurt minus a few scrapes and bruises, according to Mr Deters.

The 400-pound silverback gorilla was shot dead after it was seen dragging the child around the enclosure.

Cincinnati police said they would focus the investigation on the child’s parents and turn the results to the prosecution office.

Federal investigators will also review the zoo, the operation and the safety for which falls under the authority of the US Department of Agriculture and is inspected twice a year.

A new barrier has been put in place at the enclosure.