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CAIRNS, Australia - Steve Irwin died doing what he loved best, getting too close to one of the dangerous animals he dedicated his life to protecting with an irrepressible, effervescent personality that propelled him to global fame as television’s “Crocodile Hunter.”
The 44-year-old Irwin’s heart was pierced by the serrated, poisonous spine of a stingray as he swam with the creature Monday while shooting a new TV show on the Great Barrier Reef, his manager and producer John Stainton said.
Irwin was videotaped pulling the barb from his chest moments before losing consciousness forever, a witness said Tuesday.
The tape has been secured by Queensland state police as evidence for a coroner's inquiry.
Stainton described the footage, which he had seen, as "shocking."
"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," Stainton told reporters in Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.
"That was it. The cameraman had to shut down," Stainton said.
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