Father whose 4-years old son fell into zoo enclosure that lead to the killing of Harambe the gorilla has a criminal history

Seen in the picture are the parents of the four-year-old boy whose 15-feet fall into the gorilla exhibit moat in Cincinnati Zoo resulted in the death of 17-year-old silverback gorilla, Harambe. The child’s  mother Michelle Gregg, 32, who has four children by father Deonne Dickerson, 36, a man who has a lengthy criminal history.

Criminal filings against Dickerson stretch over a decade and include burglary, firearms offenses, drug trafficking, criminal trespass, disorderly conduct and kidnap. In 2006 he was sentenced to one year behind bars for a drug trafficking conviction. 

But in numerous pictures posted on Dickerson's Facebook site in recent years he appears to have turned his life around to become the proud father of four. Indeed, the majority of his postings to the social media site are updates of his children and his working life. In others pictures he has uploaded his friends congratulate him and Michelle on the birth of their fourth child last January.

Cleveland based Dickerson is from Atlanta, Georgia and studied at Cuyahoga Community College, Ohio and now works as a sorter at a Cincinnati industrial equipment supplier.

Gregg is currently the administrator at a Cincinnati pre-school. She has been the subject of sharp criticism following the incident that saw zoo staff shoot dead Harambe who, according to new video footage, may have been protecting rather than threatening the child after he crawled through a barrier and fell into the gorilla's enclosure.

Many social media commenters have criticized her and Dickerson and said they should be held accountable. A Cincinnati police spokesman said no charges were being considered. A spokeswoman for the family said on Monday they had no plans to comment.

'I do think there's a degree of responsibility they have to be held to,' said Kate Villanueva, a mother of two children from Erlanger, Kentucky, who started the 'Justice for Harambe' page and attended a vigil on Monday at Cincinnati Zoo for Harambe. 'You have to be watching your children at all times.'

More outraged animal lovers took to social media declaring the western lowland gorilla's life was unnecessarily taken, and more than 4,000 have already joined 'Justice for Harambe'.

Ian Redmond, the chairman of the Gorilla Organization, told CNN : 'When gorilla or other apes have things they shouldn't have, keepers will negotiate with them, bring food, their favorite treats, pineapple or some kind of fruit that they don't know and negotiate with them.'

Primatologist Julia Gallucci said: 'The gorilla enclosure should have been surrounded by a secondary barrier between the humans and the animals to prevent exactly this type of incident.'