'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin's Death Caught on VideotapeSteve Irwin was videotaped pulling a poisonous stingray barb from his chest in his last moments of life, officials said Tuesday, as tributes poured in for TV's "Crocodile Hunter."
Police said there was nothing suspicious about Irwin's death and no evidence he provoked the animal. Irwin, 44, was stabbed through the heart on Monday while snorkeling with a stingray during filming of a new TV program on Australia's Great Barrier Reef.
John Stainton, Irwin's manager who was among the crew on the reef, said the fatal blow was caught on videotape, and described viewing the footage as having the "terrible" experience of watching a friend die.
"It shows that Steve came over the top of the ray and the tail came up, and spiked him here (in the chest), and he pulled it out and the next minute he's gone," Stainton told reporters in Cairns, where Irwin's body was taken for an autopsy.
Queensland state police were holding the tape as evidence for a coroner's inquiry -- a standard procedure in high-profile deaths or those caused by other than natural causes.
Someday this will make for the highest rated "
TV Bloopers and Practical Jokes" special ever.
