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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I love how CNN named the link on the CNN home page as "..."zombie" attack" - if I had not seen it from other news sources, I would have likely ignored the story. I wonder how CNN would have described the event if a "white hispanic" had committed this horrific act of violence against a black man. Love how you guys always leave out the race-defining adjectives except when it's white-on-pick-your-minority. So blatantly obvious!
Race baiting posts like this are really boring.
"Zombie" refers to the fact that he was eating the homless guys face and continued to do so unti he was shot, it does not reffering to the fact that he was black. Just because something negative happens to a minrity doesn't mean it is a matter of race, there are plenty of white people that have been shot by cops too. It's importantto put more thought into thongs before you spew nonsense about racism.
Can someone tell T-Dog to get the shot gun???? =/
Blame the Zombie not the cops! Do you know how many calls dispatch gets on any given day? People get towed everyday in this country! Do you see us all turning into flesh eating freaks? NO!
That's what happens when Repuglicans invade Florida
This is what happens when Democrats try to spell in Florida!! Will the zombies please eat this guy next!!!
poor guy was only trying to get ahead.
Nice
I cannot believe some of the comments posted. No wonder our coutnry is in the mess it is. Half are completely stupid, iliterate and racists.
Half???
You are too kind.
Agreed!
Our country is in such a mess because our economy is based purely on speculation and the goverment officials can"t seem to do some research and use a little common sense.
@needing help-My mother was telling me last night that this was happening through florida. Ithought she messing with me until I saw your post....I'm supposed to be going to FL next week.
These bath salts give you munchies from hell.
I'd like to know where he shot him.
The only way to kill a zombie is to shoot them in the head! Haven't you seen Night of the Living Dead?
HOW THE HELL CAN YOU TALK ABOUT RACE IN THE SAME SENTENCE WITH ZOMBIE?!?!?! BOY THIS COUNTRY!
Being a zombie is totally PC!! Anyone can be a zombie. Race is involved. When you are "undead" you are "undead"!!
"JUSTICE FOR THE ZOMBIE!!!" Where are Al & Jesse now??
I'm hoping " The bible has been proven to be fact in every way" was some intense sarcasm and that no one actually believes that...
Bible did state that the Jews would come close to extinction.....Hitler.
Someone should have told the Miami cop that you shoot a zombie in the knee to incapacitate them and in the head to kill them!!! The Zombie Apocalypse is here!! And Bill Clinton said there was no sporting use for an assault rifle! ? What do you say now, Bill?
Actually white people have commited crimes involving eating another person for years. They also have a habit of shooting up schools, should we stop sending our kids to school where there are white children? The brutal truth is that you are ignorant, you should blame the individual not the race.
How the hell did any of you pull race out of this story? Are you that desperate to call someone racisit?
"Suspects he was on bath salts"? Why suspect that? Have any blood tests been done? Did they find it at the scene? I'm not saying this isn't a good possibility but more information in the article would be nice, instead I'll just assume the police are using this as an opportunity to push their aggendas. Don't do bath salts kids.
He could have had something else and are using the "drug" excuse. Even if there was something "else" in his system the report will say drugs or in this case bath salts.
After this, I'm throwing out all my bath salts.