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.
i i just don't buy that story .
This scares me and I am only 11this just juend the rest of my life
The world are getting more and more crazy for every day. Be prepard for what happend 21 December 2012.
First off, there is no such thing as zombies. And these "animal-like behaviors" are probably a result of the guy snorting Bath Salt. And the Mayans made the calander way before Julius Caesar made up the leap year, so right now, who knows what year it would be without leap years! If there were no leap years, every 100 years would be off by 24 days. So, we do not have to worry about the world ending this year. So, the guy wasn't a zombie, simply just a druggy. I'm not religious or anything so it's just my opinion.
Zombies aren't real?! Are you kidding me? Didn't you hear about the zombie outbreak at Disneyworld?
Dude, wise up – Zombies are REAL! I seen 'em!
I agree with you Hannah.
Also Julius Agustus added July and August so we're off by alot
2012 the lord Jesus will return and kill the zombies thAnk you lord Jesus you save me only you can protect me from the zombie s
Baby Jesus is my favorite
Some guy just ran up and bit me on the street and now I have a desire to eat brains...I think I'm turning zombienese I think Im turning zombienese, I really think so!
Zambies & the cuuuuzzzzzzz are not adhering to the social contract. It is time to reinstate the sperate and equal laws.
THERE ARE peopl who are zombies.
Don't kid yourself.
When a person's mind is gone, the demons move in.
He deserved to die.
Hope the victim survives.
Now they are talking about another case where it took multiples of trained police to get the guy off a taxi cab.......why does the media berate the passers by in this incident? They would have been seriously injured or killed themselves if they had intervened!!!
Dont blame that police, becouse although he is conciouse' what he did is not worst than that of the stupid fellow as a human being to eat another row like real animal just b/c he overtake "drug", thus itself could terminate his life at anytime 'no doubt', and if this idiot last we dont no how much will face the same horrible calamity or even dead unpreferably. finally, i pray god to heal the victim pastly.
WHAT?? I have no idea what you are saying...
This fool wasnt a zombie get real he was a psycho drugged out of what little mind he had left..he deserved to die..too bad there wasnt more pain involved for him after he did that to that little old man...it wasnt superhuman strength ..its what that drug does he felt no pain cant stop someone you cant hurt...for all you people who believe in the zombie apoc please say NO to frugs cause your bout crazy yourselves..lol
Drugs too! lol
Wow... just wow, they just assume its LSD because of related cases but "won't know if its bathsalts unitl the report comes back"
all u people just have no idea what is to come. i dont do drugs of any kind but do believe there will be a judgement day of some sort. Whether it be world destruction or possible pandemic. It can and will happen. I agree with the person who wrote about this could be the start because it is in the bible about people losing their minds and eating the flesh of others. Everybody should take things seriously and get ready for survival!!!!!!!!!!!
Who cares what it says in the bible? Mother Goose stories can be just as easily interpreted to mean anything at all, too.
here here biblically correct their will be whaling and knashing of teeth before the consumption of flesh in the end times
JUDGEMENT DAY IS VERY SOON. People dont waste your life go to church. 🙂
There was a chemical spill before all this weird happenings started. There was more than one if you read up on it. Eight separate incidents in one week. One was a doctor who was pulled over and he spit blood in the cops face and a guy at a party who cut his own belly open to eat his own insides, also a guy bit his girlfriends nose off and ate it. Something is goin on and me and friends are ready. I am also not religious!!!!!!!
Hey, can you send a link to all of that? I am VERY curious...
omg zombies are real watch when the zombies take over all u ppl that dont belive will die