The family of William Chapman have appealed for people to stop sharing footage of the events leading up to his death after the 23-year-old was killed by a tiger at a Yorkshire wildlife park.
William died after entering a tiger enclosure on Saturday (October 10) and was pronounced dead at the scene. In a statement read on Good Morning Britain, his family paid tribute to a son they described as "bright, warm and engaging", while condemning the circulation of what they called "deeply offensive media content" filmed in the moments before his death.
His relatives urged members of the public to refrain from circulating the footage online while investigations into the tragedy remain ongoing, The Mirror reports.
Trump's AI video
Addressing the family's plea on Good Morning Britain, ITV correspondent Katy Rickitt said: "A video emerged from William's own social media platform yesterday of him entering the tiger enclosure, and his account was shut down."
"More distressing, and we're not showing any of these videos out of respect for the family, are videos of actually what happened. The tiger pawing and mouthing at him before the attack. That has been shared by no other than the President of the United States on his own socials."
A reference was also made to a peculiar AI video posted by US President Donald Trump to his Truth Social platform, which depicts him inside the enclosure running around alongside the tiger. "That must be extremely distressing for the family, who have asked people not to share these videos," she said.
"They've asked for the process to happen here; we know that there's a health and safety investigation in the park, which is yet to open."
Family makes plea
Yorkshire Wildlife Park, which has remained closed since the incident, confirmed that the tiger would not be put down following the attack. "Everything that emerges here just points to a very sad, a very tragic and deeply distressing situation," Katy concluded.
William's family confirmed that he had suffered from 'significant mental illness' and was taking strong medication. However, they explained that it will be up to the coroner to determine what role this played in his death.
"We would ask everybody to respect that process," they said in a statement. "The family are utterly devastated by their loss and are struggling to come to terms with what has happened. The publication and circulation of deeply offensive media content is causing them severe distress at an exceptionally vulnerable time. We ask people to stop doing this."
The family are hopeful that the relevant authorities will do their utmost to get to the bottom of why our amazing son did what he did. In the meantime, please do not approach the family, their addresses, or scrape any further social media from William's or his family's accounts.
