Editor’s note: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing for some people.
Several vehicles, including buses and even three bicyclists, went past on a Miami street as a naked man chewed the face off a homeless man Saturday in what has been called a zombie-like attack, video footage posted by the Miami Herald shows.
The footage, taken by security cameras on the Herald building in downtown Miami, shows the entire 18-minute attack, which ended when a police officer shot the attacker after he did not stop his assault on the homeless man.
The video quality is poor, and facial details and the gore of the scene are not visible. But the movements of those involved are. The shooting itself is obscured by the bridge that carries Miami's Metromover tramway over the site of the attack on the MacArthur Causeway.
It's not clear how much of the attack motorists could have seen, as there is a waist-high concrete barrier between the road and the sidewalk where the attack took place, but one of the bicyclists passed on the sidewalk, and one driver slowed down to look at the scene.
The footage shows that attacker, identified by Miami-Dade Police as Rudy Eugene, 31, walking along the sidewalk and then stopping in a shaded area created by the tramway bridge. He apparently attacks the victim, dragging him out from the shade, stripping the victim's clothes off and then beating him as the victim kicks his legs in an apparent attempt to fight back.
The attacker then spends several minutes crouched over the victim, including when a bicyclist rolls by on the sidewalk and a white sedan rolls very slowly past the scene.
Police said at least five of those passers-by called to the report the incident, according to the Miami Herald report accompanying the video.
When a patrol car arrives, the officer appears to draw his gun quickly, but the actual shooting is blocked by the tramway overpass.
Larry Vega witnessed the attack and spoke to CNN affiliate WSVN.
"The guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin. It was just a blob of blood," he told WSVN.
The arrival of police did not deter the attacker, Fraternal Order of Police President Armando Aguilar told CNN affiliate WPLG.
"When the officer approached him, told him to stop, pointed a gun at him, he turned around and growled like a wild animal and kept eating at the man's face," Aguilar was quoted as saying by WPLG.
Augilar said he suspects that the attacker was under the influence of "bath salts," a drug that contains synthetic stimulants that can "cause chest pains, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia, and delusions," according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
Four other instances of drug use in Miami-Dade bear resemblances to Saturday's attack, Aguilar told WPLG.
Why 'bath salts' are dangerous
Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, said officials won't know for certain whether drugs played a role in the attack until toxicology reports are completed in a month or so. But he said police have been seeing increased incidents of drug-induced crime in the area.
Ortiz said the victim was in critical condition at a local hospital. He could not say whether the victim and attacker knew each other.
The Herald reported that the victim's nose, face and eyes were torn off during the attack.
© 2012 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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why dwell on this horror. Act of a deranged person. Or should we?
Apparently the homeless are easier targets for all & sundry.
...maybe it is important because our society has become desensitized to drug use? ...perhaps the gateway drugs, that the drug culture would have one believe are not gateway drugs........ are really gateway drugs? A society accustomed to the value of abberant behavior no longer sees abberant behavior as .... abberant! So, when will this new "designer drug" become the norm? Welcome the crazies..... oh... but we need to tolerate crazies and such that their "human rights" are not violated. I just hope that the police officers are given some time and psychological care to deal with what they had to witness... yes... and the medical responders and doctors and nurses. Thank you druggies for the horror!
Homeless are easy targets...and suspects apparently. Remember it was a homeless dude who was eating the other homeless dude. A homeless dude who can afford drugs of course.
I can't even imagine...how awful.
This whole thing really frightens me, people argue back and forth about drugs or zombies, but I am freaking out a little bit. A month ago a man in MA ate his wife, now this, and then another guy in NJ cutting out his own intestines and throwing them at cops on sunday. I really am kind of scared by all of this. I wish there was some sort of reassurance to not actually be scared that there are zombies
i agree this scares me i think when we say "zombie" we think of a virus and getting bit and infected, i think my fiance is right its not going down like that, it will be the crazies and people on drugs, i will say prepare yourself because whatever it is its going to get worse the closer to 12/21/12. people will choose to go crazy because they think the end is near, il be holding my children close!
I see a Law & Order "Ripped from the Headlines" episode shortly....
....so.... drugs in our society is not a problem?
Find me a pot smoker who rips another human being apart like an animal, then we can start to discuss whether or not people should support its legalization. Until then, stfu.
As an educated pot smoker with a full time job I completely agree with you. I couldn't hurt a fly when I'm high.
Drugs are not the problem. Bad choices are the problem. You can't legislate or arrest your way out of addiction and bad choices. Murder is outlawed, right?
Legalizing narcotics reduce consumption? Well, depends how you tackle it. Re-routing -prohibition funds- to education & rehab clinics would go a long way. Forcing people to show identification before buying narcotics would help stem the tide of narcotics reaching the hands of minors. If you make it harder for minors to get narcotics...till a time when their brains have better developed...the less likely they are to try drugs. Prohibition is a complete failure unless you view it as a re-election tool to a small elite few.
Russell–
Well in 2010 Larry Long was high as a kite, and drank and put a 5 month old baby in an oven for a few hours. Luckily did not turn it on. Plus how about that high as a kite mom, that was also drinking, that drove up the wrong up on a freeway exit, killing how many in her minivan full of kids? This was in 2009.
Drugs have there problems, but this is like saying that alcohol can cause people to murder based on its ability to sometimes induce rage in certain people. No instead we blame the individual, not the substance in that scenario, so why not just do the same in this situation. Blame the person and stop trying to excuse their actions based on a substance they chose to do.
Drugs have there problems, but this is like saying that alcohol can cause people to murder based on its ability to sometimes induce rage in certain people. No instead we blame the individual, not the substance in that scenario, so why not just do the same in this situ ation. Blame the person and stop trying to excuse their actions based on a substance they chose to do.
I can't believe that they published the video. i guess that is what happens when the security camera at a news paper films this. They spike their own ratings at the expense of the victim. What a bunch of blood happy animals.
Oh and FYI I refuse to watch it.
Yeah I don't want to watch it either. I just wanted to know how the victim was doing.
I am lost for words. Read about it on Daily Mail. Cannot comprehend the horror. Imagine what that poor victim went through.
I cant bring myself to watch that video either... and Id like to say that I cant believe that they released it...but of course they did not suprised by that at all
So why shoot the guy?? Couldn't he have just tased the guy or grabbed his feet, and pulled him away? The cops just wanted to kill another brother.
Remember kids, nothing you do should ever have a consequence. That apparently includes eating other people. You're an idiot and a racist.
One if someone is chewing on my face, I hope that someone if able immediately ends it by killing the animal. I'd rather not have them wrestle on top of me or drag him off with a peice of my flesh pulled with him. Second if I happened upon someone doing that and I'm arm, not way in hell with a fight then, tazer them, or anything else. Can't blame the officer for not want to risk wrestling with a man covered in blood, acting insane, possessed by inhuman strength, and a willingness to bite off flesh.
Would you try pulling a drug-crazed cannibal off another person? No, the whole shooting him dead outcome is much better than a Tase or "break it up, boys."
Well Billy....The next time someone is chewing your face lets hope that the officer taps your shoulder and asks you would you like me to taze him?...and lets just hope that works because it looks like half a dozen bullets did not work!!!
...or the cops wanted to kill a face-eating cannibal, regardless of race. Reeeaaalllly doubt that this was racially motivated, it is very, very sad that anyone would think so.
I would have killed the man too. If a human being degrades to that point then they are just as bad as a dog. And that would have been how I would have killed him.
Just remeber to shot the zombie twice to be safe.
That guy was high on marijuana. That's why he had the munchies.
It's here... what's your zombie plan?
Crying in the corner like a small child. That's my plan.
did it require a shot to the head to kill him?
If someone was eating MY face off, I'd like them to get shot in the head. This was GRUESOME. Not funny.
The video shows nothing except the aftermath with two people lying on the ground. You see them from the knees down.