Email

Print

Gilbert Usher has been handling snakes for most of his life. He keeps several of them as pets including a large Tommy Goff which he has been raising for the past 3 years. But on Sunday, another Tommy Goff, smaller than the one he keeps as a pet, bit him. Floyd Herbert is a woodcraftsman of Lucky Strike Village. He told us he was working when Snakeman arrived at his place with his latest catch.

Floyd Herbert- Friend/Eyewitness
"Well I was right over there sitting in that chair. I was making some walking sticks - these same walking sticks right here, when this guy came and he told my friend that he had something to show him and I see him come with this same bag right here and he start to open it. But my friend told him if it's a snake don't bring it here. He got up and he moved away."

Carlton Conorquie - Friend/Eyewitness
"I told him 3 times if you have a snake in that bag don't open it. He said wait, I have a little one. He took his hand a push it inside and he set the bag over here and when he push in his hand, he took out the snake like this. The snake was like this small and he held it in this hand. The snake put his body like this - like 2 feet away from him. But the snake was sliding through his hand and then he went like this to hold it. When he went like this to hold it, the snake bit him and he threw the snake right down there."

Snakeman attempted to gain control of the snake but the Tommy Goff struck again. This time Floyd was ready. He killed the snake using one of these staffs. From then, everything went South very quickly for the iconic snake man.

Floyd Herbert - Friend/Eyewitness
"He took a piece of string out of his pocket and he told me to hurry tie his hand which I did. He told me to tie it tight and when I finish tying it, he grab that same chair right there, because he told me he feel dizzy. This happened like less than 30 seconds. He grab that same chair right there and he sat down and that's it. I see he just east backway and he went all the way down until his head touch the ground and I got a piece of tarp that I had and I put it right down here and we put him to lie down on that and from that moment he went unconscious and he never did wake up back."

Reporter
"Is there anything else you guys could have done?"

Carlton Conorquie - Friend/Eyewitness
"No. We know we could give him some medicine because we live here out in the bush and we couldn't get it in his mouth, because we have a thing that we called "Bizzy" that we give them. But we couldn't give it to him, because he was like already dead. He was just trying to breathe."

Snakes were more than a muse for Gilbert Usher, they were his bread and butter. It's unfortunate, many residents say, that his own livelihood might now be leading to his own demise.

Floyd Herbert - Friend/Eyewitness
"I was just telling people that he got to be careful, because we said supposed it was a tourist or something? Because he has lots of different snakes at his house. That's how we make his money, which I don't have anything against him. But he pick the wrong snake to do business with and a snake like Tommy Goff - that's not a snake to play with."

In 2008, Usher was bitten on the face also by a Tommy Goff. He survived that encounter but his friends fear for the worst this time around.

Floyd Herbert - Friend/Eyewitness
"This one I see with this snakeman, from the time he left from here, he still didn't get back conscious, so I don't know if he will make it. Just God could work a miracle for him."

Reporting for 7 news, I am Emanuel Pech.

And while the KHMH press officer tells us he is very critical, we're reliably informed that he is, in fact, stable - and that he has been taken out of an induced coma…so, the prognosis may be more encouraging than first thought, and Snakeman may yet live to tell the tale of another snake bite.