Miami 'Zombie' Eats Homeless Man's Face Suspectedly High on Bath Salts

Huffington Post- A newly released surveillance video from atop a Miami Herald parking garage shows the entire violent attack Saturday during which a naked man chewed off most of a homeless victim's face.




The video, uncensored though partially obscured and from a distance, shows 31-year-old Rudy Eugene in the last moments of his life: striking Ronald Poppo, 65, removing Poppo's pants, and brutalizing his face in broad daylight for nearly 18 minutes as traffic rolled past on the busy MacArthur Causeway.



Eugene was shot and killed by Miami Police officer Jose Rivera as he loomed over Poppo's bleeding body, but the video helps piece together the moments leading up to the gruesome attack and suggests the two men met by chance on the MacArthur's Biscayne Boulevard off-ramp, in the shadow of the Miami Metromover.



CBS Miami reports in a timeline of his last hours that Eugene, who spent Friday night with a girlfriend in Miami Gardens, drove to South Beach Saturday morning to check out Memorial Day weekend festivities and was unable to start his car to make a return trip. Abandoning his purple sedan, which was later towed, police say he at some point set off on foot across the causeway:

"It was a hot day, with temperatures in the 90's, and a long walk. Either late that morning, or early that afternoon, police sources said, Eugene began his trek back to Miami. As he walked across the causeway, they said he started stripping, leaving his clothes on the walkway and in the road.



Cops found his drivers license and clothes strewn from the beach to the mainland."

Footage released by the Herald picks up a fully naked Eugene just before 2 p.m. as he walked down the exit ramp on the other side of the bridge. Pausing in a shady spot, he reels or spins slightly as a bicyclist whizzes by, then is mostly lost to sight as he bends over the homeless Poppo where he sat or lay on the ground.


About two minutes, later, however, Eugene rolls Poppo into the middle of the sidewalk. He appears to strip away some of the older man's clothing and then savage his face as Poppo futilely resists. Several minutes later, Eugene again drags Poppo farther down the sidewalk and continues to attack him before another cyclist rolls slowly by and a white car pauses on the off-ramp, just on the other side of a short wall separating the roadway from the bike path.


Gruesome photos circulating the web would later confirm most of Poppo's face, including his nose, eyes, and mouth, was ripped away, in what Miami's Fraternal Order of Police vice president Sgt. Javier Ortiz told the Associated Press was of the "goriest scenes I've ever been to." Poppo remains in critical condition.




"He had his face eaten down to his goatee. The forehead was just bone. No nose, no mouth," said Sgt. Armando Aguilar, Miami FOP president. "In my opinion, he just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time."



The Herald reports at least five passersby called police:

"According to Miami police, the first call of a disturbance came from a passing motorist who reported seeing Eugene stripping off his clothes and acting erratically. That call was routed to the Florida Highway Patrol — it’s unclear why — and then transferred to the Miami police. Police have not disclosed the time of the first call.



A Road Ranger called to the scene also called 911 and used a loudspeaker to call for the naked attacker to cease. As the attack dragged on, two other motorists called police, as did another cyclist, Larry Vega, who later told reporters that Eugene “just stood, his head up like that, with pieces of flesh in his mouth. And he growled.” '

The surveillance video shows at least two more cyclists pass before Officer Rivera drives up the off-ramp, about 18 minutes into the attack. Rivera can be seen approaching the scene at a normal pace before pulling his gun and quickly stepping into a shooting stance. Vega later told news outlets that when Rivera yelled at Eugene to back away, the naked man merely raised his head "with pieces of flesh in his mouth," growled, and began chewing again.




Rivera reportedly then shot Eugene once, but Eugene still continued to attack Poppo's face, prompting the officer to shoot multiple times until he was dead.



"The guy, he was like a zombie, blood dripping, it was intense," the New York Daily News quotes Vega as saying. "The closest thing I've seen to it? 'The Walking Dead'."



Though police theorize Eugene was prompted to attack Poppo by drug-induced psychosis -- possibly caused by a new drug called "bath salts" -- the Herald reports no drugs or paraphernalia were found at the scene. Toxicology reports are expected to take several weeks.

--------------------------------------------------------------

How could ANY drug drive a person to do that to another person's face?  Then again, I don't believe Dr. Lector was on anything. ;)  But seriously, I now want to throw up. Holy shit. 

(Click HERE for graphic picture)

(Video of assault here!)

Cops: Accused 'Cannibal' Tried to Kill Self in Fairfield

Fairfield Citizen- The man accused of eating the brains and eyeball of a Bridgeport man who he killed with an ax had tried to commit suicide earlier this month in the aisle of a CVS pharmacy on Black Rock Turnpike.

On Jan. 12, Tyree Lincoln Smith was discovered bleeding heavily from his left wrist, which he slashed with a box cutter, and then collapsed on the floor of the CVS at 1968 Black Rock Turnpike, Fairfield police said Thursday.

The suicide attempt occurred about a week before Bridgeport police found the decomposing body of Angel "Tun Tun" Gonzalez on Brooks Street in that city.

Smith, 35, had been discharged Jan. 9 from St. Vincent's Medical Center in Bridgeport and came to the store to fill several prescriptions, police said. The pharmacist told police he asked Smith for his prescription health card, and Smith spent about 10 minutes looking in his wallet for it. Smith was calm, according to the report, but when he was unable to find the card, the pharmacist asked Smith if he wanted to go back to St. Vincent's for assistance in filling the prescriptions, which were very expensive.

Smith spent another 15 minutes waiting in the pharmacy area and then left. However, a store employee found him a short time later on the floor in a pool of blood. The employee called 911 and kicked the box cutter away from Smith's grasp.

An ambulance was called to take Smith to the hospital and Fairfield police referred the case to the Greater Bridgeport Community Mental Health Center.

"This just shows that each and every day, whenever an officer responds to a call, they really don't know the all the background," Fairfield Police Chief Gary MacNamara said. "Our officers go to help someone, and unbeknownst to them, this guy later will be a suspect in a gruesome murder."

This Day In History

Aug 20 1968
The Soviet Union invades Czechoslovakia.

Aug 20 1979
Social studies teacher Albert Fentress of Poughkeepsie New York lures an 18-year-old boy into his basement, ties him up, murders him, and then cooks and devours the boy's genitals. Fentress is found totally nuts and is sentenced to psychiatric care.

Aug 20 1986
Rather than submit to being fired, part-time letter carrier Pat Sherrill shoots 14 coworkers at his Edmond, Oklahoma post office.

Aug 20 1998
President Clinton orders cruise missile attacks against terrorist training camps in Afghanistan and a pharmaceutical plant in Sudan suspected of making chemical weapons.

This Day In History

Jul 22 1934
John Dillinger is killed by the FBI at the Biograph Cinema in Chicago. After seeing this picture, many people come to believe that he must have possessed an enormous schlong. Actually, it is his arm in rigor mortis. (A competing theory holds that this is not Dillinger at all, but some patsy chosen because of the FBI's inability to capture the gangster.)

Jul 22 1991
Tracy Edwards escapes from Jeffrey Dahmer's apartment, handcuffs still attached. After being summoned to the scene, Milwaukee police encounter the partial remains of 11 previous victims. Dahmer is ultimately charged with 15 murders.

Jul 22 1994
In court, O.J. pleads "absolutely, 100% not guilty" of savagely killing his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Ronald Goldman.

This Day In History

May 17 1924
Two youths discover a human skull on the banks of the Leine in Hanover, Germany. And although two more skulls are found a month later, police ignore it until a sackful of bones turn up on the riverbank. Dragging the Leine yields another 500 bones, belonging to about 27 victims. Eventually, police arrest Fritz Haarmann for the crimes. He would lure runaway boys back to his apartment, where they would be raped, killed, and cut into steaks. Then the unlicensed butcher would sell the meat as beef on the black market. All told, he killed between 40 and 50 boys.

May 17 1965
Magazine The Nation publishes Hunter S. Thompson's first-hand experiences with the Hell's Angels motorcycle club. The bikers would eventually stomp Thompson when they demanded payment for his time spent. A year later, Random House published his book Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs.

May 17 1974
During a gun battle with members of the Symbionese Liberation Army, the LAPD fires tear gas into their Watts hideout. The canisters ignite a fire which soon consumes the house. Three other SLA members, including kidnapped heiress Patty Hearst, watch the events unfold on TV in their motel room down the street from Disneyland.

May 17 1980
A three-day race riot breaks out after an all-white jury acquits four white Miami police officers of killing Arthur McDuffie, a black insurance salesman. The cops had beaten him with their flashlights and billyclubs, and he died in the hospital. 18 fatalities and more than $100 million in property damage are the final result.

Coach, Toll Taker Accused Of Dismembering, Cooking Body

BOSTON -- Two local men, including a high school football coach, have been charged in connection with the slaying of a construction worker who prosecutors said was also a drug dealer. Prosecutors alleged that the pair killed, dismembered and cooked the man's body in March.

Paul Moccia, 48, and Daniel Bradley, 47, were each charged with first-degree murder and ordered held without bail Monday in Wrentham District Court.

The victim, Angel Antonio Ramirez, was reported missing by his girlfriend in March after he did not return from picking up a friend at Logan Airport.

Prosecutor Robert Nelson said that Ramirez, a Guatemalan immigrant who lived in Framingham, was Moccia's cocaine supplier. When Moccia figured out he could not pay the $70,000 he owed Ramirez, he began to develop a plan to kill the man, prosecutors said.

"One of the defendants for sure and the victim did know each other. So it wasn't random. It's not a 'wrong place, wrong time' kind of issue," Norfolk County District Attorney William Keating said.
On March 20, Moccia shot Ramirez and Bradley took the body to a Walpole concrete company where he dismembered and cooked the man's remains, Nelson said. Five areas of blood were discovered at the concrete company, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors said it is unlikely that Ramirez's body will ever be recovered.

Bradley, who has been an assistant football coach at Xaverian Brothers High School in Westwood since 2002, is part owner of the concrete company. He was arrested at his home on Friday. Prosecutors said a pair of boots with blood on them was found at Bradley's home.

Defense attorney John Gibbons said Bradley never met Ramirez, does not know Ramirez and wants to clear his name.

Xaverian Brothers released a statement Monday that read, in part, "We are taking steps immediately to provide information and counseling to any students, parents, alumni, trustees, staff and faculty concerned about the very serious nature of the charges."

Moccia has been a Massachusetts Turnpike toll taker for 13 years.

Moccia and Bradley will return to court on July 7.

This Day In History

Apr 21 1847
Lewis Keseberg, the final member of the Donner Party still stranded in the mountains, is escorted to safety by a fourth rescue party. Later accounts hold that Keseberg was discovered "seated, like a ghoul, in the midst of dead bodies, with his face and hands smeared with blood, and a kettle of human flesh boiling over the fire."

Apr 21 1910
American original Mark Twain dies of heart failure in Redding, CT.

Apr 21 1930
320 inmates are left to burn alive during a fire in the Ohio State Penitentiary. Locked into their cells, the men could not escape the smoke and flames.

Apr 21 1992
Convicted murderer Robert Alton Harris consumes two large pizzas, a bucket of fried chicken, and some ice cream on the eve of his execution. Later, before the gas chamber is activated, Harris propounds: "You can be a king or a street sweeper, but everyone dances with the grim reaper."