Constable warns Jim Wells County residents after alligator sighting

A safety warning from Precinct 6 Constable Ray Escamilla Jr. put Jim Wells County residents on alert after an alligator sighting raised concerns around the places people cross every day, from rural roads and drainage areas to ponds and neighborhood edges. The warning was aimed at prevention, not alarm, with the message that a wildlife encounter can turn dangerous fast if children, pets or curious passersby move too close.

Ray Escamilla Jr., who is listed by Jim Wells County Constables at 2310 Old Kingsville Rd. in Alice, serves as a certified peace officer with the same enforcement powers as other peace officers. In a county where residents move between ranch land, low-lying water channels and developed areas, that role makes the constable one of the most visible public-safety messengers when a hazard reaches beyond a routine wildlife sighting.

The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says American alligators were once very common in rivers, creeks and backwater sloughs across East and South Texas, but unregulated market hunting and habitat change drove the species near extirpation in Texas by the 1950s. Legal protection, improved habitat and water impoundment projects helped the animals repopulate the state over the past 20 years, and many complaints now involve alligators seen in natural habitat, roadside ditches or wetlands adjacent to habitat.

That context matters for Jim Wells County residents who live, walk, fish or let pets near canals, ponds or drainage areas. TPWD says an alligator in or around habitat that does not pose a safety risk is not an emergency, but residents should keep their distance, never feed or harass the animal and leave the area if it is close to people or animals. If the alligator appears to be a nuisance, local guidance says to contact Texas Parks and Wildlife rather than trying to move, corner or remove it.

The practical warning is simple: keep children away from the water’s edge, leash pets near any ditch or pond, and treat a sighting as a reason to back off, not to get closer. In South Texas, where wildlife and water routinely overlap, that caution can keep a single encounter from becoming an injury or a larger emergency response.