Snake handler dies from rattlesnake bite at Texas festival

SAN ANTONIO (KTSA News) — A Texas man’s hobby took a deadly turn over the weekend.

It happened Saturday at the Rattlesnake Roundup in Freer, where Eugene DeLeon Sr. was handling snakes for a crowd of onlookers.

While DeLeon was exhibiting the dangerous rattlers, something he had been doing for more than 20 years, he was bit.

A helicopter was called in and he was airlifted the hospital in Corpus Christi, but he died that night.

His sister posted on social media that DeLeon “gained his wings doing what he loved doing”.