Hard to believe this really happened, but much of it was actually captured on video surveillance cameras. Witnesses say the assailant was “growling and snarling” during the attack. Graphic Warning:
(ABC News) — The grisly assault on a homeless man whose face was eaten by a deranged assailant lasted for 18 agonizing minutes and was captured on nearby surveillance cameras.
Rudy Eugene, who authorities suspect may have been high on a dangerous new street drug known as “bath salts,” had to be shot four times by a police officer to halt the cannibalistic attack.
The victim, Ronald Poppo, 65, is in critical condition after police say 75 percent of his face was devoured by Eugene. Footage taken by security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building show most of the 18 gory minutes of Eugene’s growling and vicious attack on Poppo when Eugene ate the man’s nose, mouth and eyes.
First it was cocaine, now it bath salts. This man obviously had sopme sort of psychotic break. Whether it had to do with too many drugs, or not enough, we won’t know for a while.
It’s a sad case either way.
Also, “bad LSD”.
Holy crap. Should we be keeping an eye on the victim, you know, just in case?
That this event is rare enough to be newsworthy and shocking highlights the many things that have to come together for this to happen.
Clearly the guy is/was mentally unstable. But most people who are this deranged are not violent and most of those are violent only when pushed. Very few actively perpetrate the violence.
There may have been drugs involved. But most people on drugs, pretty much across the board, don’t get this crazy. Even fewer become violent.
Exposure to the zombie meme likely played a part. Zombies are part of popular culture. FEMA even has/had a zombie page that hey used to teach the basics of preparedness. Many of us have play-acted like a zombie. Combined with the other two factor perhaps an all-night marathon of Walking Dead helped precipitate this event. Out of 300 million people in the US only this guy seems to have taken the act to the ultimate end.
It is only the seeming combination of mental issues, drugs, and zombie as cultural artifact that led to this person showing us that humans are potentially violent and perversely so.
The selection of a homeless man was practical. Older, less fit, possible drunk, means that he was an easier target. biting the face is just a matter of selecting the softest, most vulnerable portion of the body.
Women in self-defense classes are often taught that biting the face is an option with many advantages. The face is soft and vulnerable to teeth of even the smallest person, bitten on the face the person is bleeding profusely, in pain, and possibly unable to see if blood gets in their eyes or the eyes involuntarily close. For a person defending themselves all this buys time and the possibility of escape. Blood trails and disfiguring wounds make tracking down attackers easier.
Unfortunately the advantages a person has when biting the face worked in the attackers favor. With gruesome results.
Of course no tragic event is so bad that it can’t be made worse by someone seeking to advance their agenda. Look for tirades against drugs, horror films, youth, alcohol abuse, even homelessness. Given enough time and close enough attention to social media I predict that someone will eventually say that if the drunken derelict wasn’t passed out in public he wouldn’t have been a victim. Extra points if they say the old guy ‘ruined the life of a promising youth’ by being there.
Apart from the obvious fact that the attacker was suffering a severe mental meltdown, you realize of course that this horrific occurrence will be used and abused by certain religio nuts to further their own agenda?
‘Zombieism…and the fact they exist yeah really…’
Them’s scientifical atheists likes evidence right well this is prima facia evidence for the contentions that woo merchants have long raved about…
Sunday rants from the pulpit will be chock full of assertions that Zombies are in fact real, just as they have been saying for years, the devils tools are everywhere and you had better get right with dog!
It, unfortunately given the tragedy, will be a story that very few preachers will ignore, it ticks all the boxes, except for the drugged mental breakdown angle, and of course the spin will be that ghosties and ghoulies vampires and werewolves are real…just like zombies!
And only jeebus can wrangle the critters.