Homeless man has face chewed off

Montse · May 30, 2012

Revealed: Homeless man whose face was eaten by the Miami cannibal in horrific attack as photos of his injuries emerge

Rudy Eugene, 31, tore into victim's face with his teeth and growled

Police believe he may have taken 'bath salts,' a potent new drug

Images have been released of Ronald Poppo, 65, recovering in Miami hospital

75 per cent of victim's face chewed off in 'some of the most horrific injuries staff have ever encountered'

The victim of an unthinkable act of violence in Miami this past weekend has been identified as graphic images emerged of his injuries.

Police say that Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old man, was viciously attacked by Rudy Eugene, 31, on Saturday in the shadow of The Miami Herald's headquarters.

Mr Poppo's attacker was killed at the scene after he refused to stop eating Mr Poppo's flesh, growling at officers after they demanded he stop.

Police believe both Eugene and Mr Poppo were homeless.

Mr Poppo is currently recovering from the attack in Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center in a serious condition suffering from 'some of the worst injuries staff had ever encountered'.

CBS reports that officials now believe a highly potent drug called 'bath salts' is to blame for the attack.

Emergency room doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital said they have seen an increase in incidents related to the drug, which is referred to on the street as 'the news LSD.'

'We noticed an increase probably after Ultra Fest,' said emergency room Dr. Paul Adams, at Jackson Memorial Hospital to CBS.

When people take bath salts, Dr Adams said, their temperature rises to an extremely high level, causing them to rip off their clothes and become aggressive in a state of extreme delirium.

Some have been known to use their jaws as a weapon of attack, Dr Adams said, and they become 'extremely strong.'

'I took care of a 150 pound individual who you would have thought he was 250 pounds,' Dr. Adams said to CBS.

'It took six security officers to restrain the individual.'

Dr Adams said that the new drug is not only a danger to those who take it, but also emergency responders who must restrain the drug-addled abusers of it.

Down: A side view shows the naked attacker shortly after he was shot dead by police

'It’s dangerous for the police,' Dr Adams said.

'It’s dangerous for the fire fighters. It’s dangerous for the hospital workers taking care of them because they come in, they have to be restrained both chemically and physically and you’re asking for someone to get hurt.'

He added that as the body toll of this new trend of drug rises, the drug dealers that push it will be held liable for the attacks.

The Medical Examiner's Office is expected to perform an autopsy and toxicology screening to determine whether Eugene really was under the influence of drugs when he went on the attack and what he had taken.

'He had his face eaten down to his goatee. The forehead was just bone. No nose, no mouth.'

Sgt Armando Aguilar

But as more information comes out regarding what may have caused Eugene to attack Mr Poppo, images of the victim's face reveal the extent of the damage.

Images of Mr Poppo - all of which have not been confirmed by police as genuine - have surfaced online showing most of the victim's face removed.

'He had his face eaten down to his goatee. The forehead was just bone. No nose, no mouth,' said Sgt. Armando Aguilar, president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police.

Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, said it was one of the bloodiest 'and goriest scenes I've ever been to.'

Caught: Surveillance footage shows the two naked men after the attacker was shot by police

The Miami Herald reports that Mr Poppo has been homeless for some time, at least since 1983, and has a long history of arrests.

He was arrested at least 24 times since 1978, mostly for drinking in public and trespassing, but also a handful of felony arrests for burglary, assault and resisting arrest.

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Friends and family of Eugene have come forward claiming that the North Miami Beach High School graduate 'was not a face-eating zombie monster.'

'The Rudy we know was a nice gentleman with a warm smile and funny. He’s not like that at all,' former classmate Victoria Forte told The Miami Herald. 'We are going to do our part as his friends to not let him go down like this.'

Long-time friend Cassandra Metayer said that Eugene was the son of Haitain immigrants and he grew up in Miami Beach.

He played football and married Ms Metayer's cousin Jenny Ductant in 2005, but divorced two years later.

However, the couple's divorce records, obtained by The Miami Herald, show that he had no income.

'I wouldn't say he had mental problems but he always felt like people was against him ... No one was for him, everyone was against him,' Ms Ductant said to WPLG-TV.

She said that over the course of their relationship, Eugene became increasingly violent towards her.

'That's why I left,' she said, adding that the two hadn't spoken in the past three to four years.

Ives Eugene, who identified himself as Rudy Eugene's uncle, described his nephew as a 'nice and hard-working' man who washed cars at a local dealership.

He said his nephew had asked his girlfriend to borrow her car, but she said no. 'So he rode the bicycle, and he never came back home,' he said.

Florida Department of Law Enforcement records show Eugene was arrested a number of times in the past few years, once for battery, trespassing, and four times for marijuana related charges.

In 2004, he was arrested for threatening to kill his mother.

'We could hear him yelling and throwing things inside the house,' said Mike Pons to WPLG-TV, one of the North Miami police detectives who arrested Eugene.

'He wasn't cooperative, wouldn't follow orders, very belligerent,' Detective Pons said. 'He had that thousand-yard stare, staring right into you, not assessing or understanding what the commands were.'

Eugene was one of the first people ever to be tasered by North Miami Beach police, needing to be shocked with a stun gun three times to be subdued.

Witness: Larry Vega was cycling off the MacArthur Causeway on Saturday afternoon when he saw the savage attack, which he described as 'the most gruesome, traumatic thing I have ever seen in my life'

A cyclist described the terrifying moment he witnessed Eugene tear pieces of flesh from another man's face at the side of a freeway before being shot dead by police when he refused to stop.

Larry Vega, from Miami, was cycling off the MacArthur Causeway on Saturday afternoon when he saw the savage attack, which he described as 'the most gruesome, traumatic thing I have ever seen in my life'.

He told WSVN: 'The guy was like tearing him to pieces with his mouth and I told him to get off. But the guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin.

'A police officer came over, told him several times to get off then climbed over the divider and got in front of him and said, "Get off!" But the guy just stood his head up like that with a piece of flesh in his mouth and growled.'

Still alive: The attacker moves and sits up even though he had already been shot, and police continue to shoot him until he finally dies on the scene

Mr Vega said Eugene continued to eat his victim's face so he was shot repeatedly.

Images taken from a Miami Herald surveillance camera show the legs of the two men lying beneath a freeway underpass.

Mr Vega described the crime scene - which he compared to a horror movie: 'It was just a blob of blood. You couldn't really see, it was just blood all over the place.

'It was one of the most gruesome things I have ever seen in my life in person. You know, you see these things in the movies but when you see it in person, it's pretty traumatic.'

Hero: A police spokesman called the officer who repeatedly shot the attacker 'a hero'

Armando Aguilar of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police told WSVN: 'What's happening is whenever we see that a person has taken all of his clothes off and has become violent, it’s indicative of this excited delirium that's caused by overdose of drugs.

'What's happening is inside their body their organs are burning up alive.'

A woman notified a police officer nearby that she had seen two men fighting, witnesses told The Miami Herald.

In the barrage of gunfire, the naked man was killed, collapsing face-down on the pedestrian walkway right by the Herald's parking garage.

Javier Ortiz, a police spokesman, said that based on information he's received, the officer who fired the shots 'is a hero and saved a life'.

Growing concern: Police cars gather as the situation progresses

There were no weapons found near the two naked men, leading them to believe that the attacker used his own strength to subdue his victim.

'There are other ways to injure people,' Sergeant Altarr William told The Herald.

'Some people know martial arts, others are very strong and can kill you with their hands.'

MacArthur Causeway is a major route that connects downtown Miami to popular South Beach.

Traffic clogged the area for hours as people used the route to descend into South Beach for Urban Beach Week, an annual festival dedicated to hip-hop music.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2151886/Rudy-Eugene-Miami-cannibals-victim-Ronald-Poppo-pictured-vicious-attack.html#ixzz1wLHzNj00

Absolutely shocking, and if you choose to click on the link in the article for the images make sure you have no one around you and you have a strong constitution

_00_deathscar · May 30, 2012