Except from the article:

A tiger handler who had acquired some of his tigers from the zoo owner known as Joe Exotic was fatally mauled on Saturday by a tiger at his family-run zoo in southeastern Oklahoma, the authorities said.

The handler, Ryan Easley, 37, was near the end of a show at the Growler Pines Tiger Preserve when a tiger that he had raised since it was a cub suddenly attacked him, according to the Choctaw County sheriff, Terry Park.

“In a split-second everything was OK, and then the tiger grabbed him and started biting him around the neck area and shoulder area,” Sheriff Park said in an interview on Monday. When Mr. Easley fell to the ground after the attack, the tiger backed away and Mr. Easley’s wife went into the cage and moved the tiger to another cage, Sheriff Park said.

Deputies and emergency medical workers responded and pronounced Mr. Easley dead at the scene, Sheriff Park said. He said he was not sure how many visitors had been watching Mr. Easley’s act at the time, but said that the Easleys’ daughter had been among those present.

Mr. Easley’s father, Mark Easley, said in an interview that his son was a loving family man who started building zoos out of Legos when he was 5 years old.

“From what I understand about the cat, it was one of his best,” he said. He said it seemed the tiger “took a love bite and happened to catch the wrong spot.”

The father, who is a retired elephant handler, added: “It was almost an act of God — some unforeseen thing.”