It could have happened to anyone. That is what Jennifer Venditti Roye was hoping to show when she shared a photo of her son Channing, 3, playing in the Seven Seas Lagoon taken just hours before 2-year-old Lane Graves was dragged underwater by an alligator in nearly the exact same spot.
“I’ve seen posts criticizing the parents,” the Madison, Mississippi–based mom wrote on Facebook Wednesday, June 15. “I can assure you alligators were not on my mind at all when Channing was in the water. It’s a tiny beach, surrounded by pools, water slides, a restaurant a fire pit. I can’t conceive that an alligator would be in such a busy, small space. #judgelesspraymore.”
The post has since been shared 201,845 times.
“This tragedy could happen to anyone,” Venditti Roye tells Us Weekly.
As previously reported, the Graves family had been enjoying an outdoor showing of Zootopia on the shore of the lagoon when the alligator snatched Lane, who was wading in the water at about 9 p.m. on Tuesday, June 14. The toddler’s body was recovered “completely intact” the following day, Sheriff Jerry Demings confirmed at a press conference.
“It seemed like such a safe place,” Venditti Roye — who is also mom to Brooklyn, 6, and Noble, 4 — tells Us. “We were there from 5:00 until 8:45 p.m. right before [Lane was grabbed]. I sat and ate at a picnic table while Channing ran back and forth to the water. We were taking selfies right down there by the water.”
She continues: “It’s a central location. You wouldn’t think an alligator would be lurking there. Now would I go off into a lagoon in a shaded area off the beaten path? Never.”
The stay-at-home mom hopes people will stop judging the Graves family. “You need to get on their knees and pray instead of pointing fingers at these parents,” she tells Us. “I don’t know what bubble you are living in that you think this tragedy could not happen to you.”
