The young girl never saw the vicious predator until it was too late. When 13-year-old Ella Reed felt the “piercing pain in her side,” she instinctively went into overdrive, fighting for her life. Thankfully, her punches and kicks were effective enough to fend off her hidden attacker. Police aren’t bothering to issue a manhunt but Florida fishermen will be out to catch the suspect and fillet him.
Girl attacked at beach
From what 13-year-old Ella Reed told local reporters after the attack, “she was sitting in the shallow water near a jetty at Fort Pierce Beach when she suddenly felt a piercing pain in her side.”
When she came face to face with her assailant, the girl was terrified. “The shark itself was so powerful,” Reed relates.
As she told her interviewers, the initial blow was enough to get her attention. “That was what I felt the most because it was hitting my stomach really hard.”
Florida 13-year-old girl Ella Reed fights off shark that attacked her at beach https://t.co/M4DBzRCqcW
— Lets Get Financial Freedom (@GoNewsDaily1) May 13, 2023
By instinct, the girl “punched the shark.” It wasn’t expecting that. The blow forced “it to temporarily retreat before it returned.”
Since then, she found out it was a “five to six-foot-long bull shark” who was inviting the teen girl to dinner. “It wouldn’t leave me alone, so I had to use my arm and use my hand too, so it got my arm and my finger,” Ms. Reed relates.
By the time the shark came back for her again, she was bleeding. That’s not a good thing under the circumstances.
Saved by family
As the persistent shark approached the blood-covered girl yet again, she screamed loudly enough to attract the attention of her mom and brother. They were all together at the beach but separate enough for her to get in danger.
“It was insane because she was totally covered in blood pretty much from head to toe,” Ella’s mom informs. “She couldn’t really see what went on.” She didn’t need to see it because the fight was in Braille.
By the time they got her to safety, Ella was “shaking, but appeared calm.” Paramedics treated the girl for bites on her “stomach, arm, finger and the top of her knee.”
Ella Reed, 13, fought off the shark, which she says bit her on the torso, leg and finger. She's eager to get back in the water after her wounds heal. https://t.co/r3DkF2tcqx
— TCPalm (@TCPalm) May 13, 2023
She managed to keep all of her appendages which is a dicey thing in shark attacks. By the time they got done treating her she ended up with 19 stitches.
Ms. Reed didn’t realize the extent of her injuries until after they cleaned and patched her up. During the fight, she “didn’t feel much pain,” the girl observes, “because the adrenaline was through the roof.”
The wounds will leave scars but she’s “proud” of them and they’ll give her something to talk about at school. She grew up there in Florida and won’t hesitate to get back in the water. She’ll pay more attention though. “It was clear water so you never really know when it’s going to happen.“
