Scared Monkeys Discussion Forum

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/report-miami-officer-shoots-1447447.html

 ::MonkeyShocked::  Is there a full moon?

Edit to add name to subject line.  MB

No full moon as far as I'm aware

"Urban Beach" week :-(  Formerly known as 'Hip Hop' week.

We get winners descending upon us from all over the place


http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/26/2818832/naked-man-shot-killed-on-macarthur.html

Naked man killed by Police near MacArthur Causeway was ‘eating’ face off victim

 ::snipping2::

The incident, which came as crowds descended upon South Beach for the annual Urban Beach Week hip-hop festival, snarled traffic on the causeway for several hours.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.timesunion.com/news/article/Cops-identify-naked-man-who-tried-to-rip-the-3592038.php
Cops identify naked man who tried to rip the flesh off another man
May 29, 2012

(http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/13/33/57/2997242/3/628x471.jpg)
In this image taken from video, Miami police officers stand watch near a naked man, second from right, who was shot dead by a police officer when he refused to stop chewing on the face of the naked man next to him, partially obscured by a railing, on the MacArthur Causeway ramp onto Northeast 13th Street in Miami, Saturday, May 26, 2012. The victim was taken to a nearby hospital. Police say neither man's identity is known. (AP Photo/The Miami Herald) MAGS OUT

MIAMI — The naked man who viciously attacked another man — at one point trying to eat off the other man's face — before he was shot dead by police was identified Monday.

Police sources said Monday the attacker was 31-year-old Rudy Eugene.

The name of the man Eugene seriously hurt remained a mystery. On Monday, the man was still at Jackson Memorial Hospital, in critical condition.

"We're hoping that he pulls through, for his well-being, but also so he can tell us what happened," said Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami police union. "Only he knows."

The grisly scene unfolded about 2 p.m. on the MacArthur Causeway, near the off-ramp to Biscayne Boulevard. A Road Ranger spotted the men and shouted on his loudspeaker for the attacker to back away. Meanwhile, a woman also saw what was happening flagged down an officer.
 ::snipping2::
Security video from the adjacent Miami Herald building captured snippets of the violence as the two men — one dead, the other gravely injured — lay on the sidewalk as scores of officers arrived.

On Monday, police said they still needed witnesses to come forward about what they saw.

"We know that there were many people on the MacArthur Causeway," police spokesman Detective William Moreno said, "and we're hoping they come forward."

http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/29/reports-miami-zombie-attacker-may-have-been-using-bath-salts/

Reports: Miami zombie attacker may have been using 'bath salts'

It sounds like he was already well on his way to a mental disorder when this occurred.  I really feel for the witnesses.

The local TV news has indicated that they believe the 'victim' is one of our many homeless.  They think the perp is someone who has lived in the area for a couple years -- but they have not confirmed or reported too much. And they are indicating the perp's actions are a result of too much LSD -- something about it makes your body so hot it feels like it is starting to melt on the inside so taking the clothes off is an indicator and it makes you act delirious.

This is the grossest thing I have ever heard :-(

http://articles.orlandosentinel.com/2012-05-29/news/sfl-naked-man-who-ate-off-part-of-victims-face-identified-20120528_1_naked-man-miami-police-police-officer
Naked man who ate off part of victim's face identified

Omg goodness Sharon...me too.  It sounds like it came straight from a scary movie.  I really wish I had never read about it.  It makes me sick.  It is also scary that bath salts would cause someone to do something like this.  Gawwhhh, anyone can jump out of anywhere at anytime and eat my face off...dear Lord if I wasn't paranoid before...well I sure am now.  Prayers for the victim.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/27/2819885/investigation-continues-into.html

Questions remain about why naked man on Miami causeway tried to rip flesh off another man’s face

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Security video from the adjacent Miami Herald building captured snippets of the violence on the MacArthur’s off-ramp to Biscayne Boulevard as the two men — one dead, the other gravely injured — lay on the sidewalk as scores of officers arrived.

The victim remained Sunday at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center. In addition to eating the man’s flesh, his attacker, according to police sources, tried to gouge out his eyes. Neither was identified Sunday, and the name of the officer who killed the attacker was not released.
 
::snipping2::

Under the causeway’s bridge Sunday, in the area near the attack populated by homeless people, a sheltered space was littered with cardboard mats, syringes and broken bottles. A man who called himself “Rio” stood near the off-ramp, about 100 feet from the crime scene, holding a sign that read “homeless please help.”

Rio said he wasn’t the only person who hung around the area. But Saturday, when he was there, he didn’t see anyone else. He was napping, Rio said, when the chaos began.

“A police officer woke me up and told me I was in the middle of a crime scene,” Rio said.

On the other side of the causeway, near the eastbound lanes, another man who gave only his first name, Andres, was returning to his usual spot after showering and having a warm meal at a Miami church, he said.

“In my experience, I don’t see crack or anything like that around here,” he said.

But drugs remained part of the conversation. Saturday, police theorized that the attacker might have suffered from “cocaine psychosis,” a drug-induced craze that bakes the body internally and often leads those it affects to strip naked to try to cool off.

 ::snipping2::

We had a case last year of a young college couple taking bath salts.  The young man beat the young woman almost to death with a decorative pewter beer mug.  She miraculously survived with no memory of the event and a face that many reconstructive surgeries couldn't completely repair.  The bf is facing an attempted murder charge.  These kids come from good families and now both their lives are ruined.   

I agree labubske. Just horrifying.

As scary and gross as it is, its better to be aware than completely caught off guard.  Bath salts are easy for people to get their hands on, cheap, and a more intense high.  The stuff should be outlawed!

Also horrifying :-(

Wow...so sad.  I have heard some pretty bad things about bath salts.  I think there was a case on here where we discussed the mom or dad may have been on bath salts.  Who was that?  Aliayah Lundsford, I believe.  :(

Here it is:  "Lena Lunsford Investigated for Dangerous Drug 'Bath Salts'" http://www.wboy.com/story/16069988/2011/11/17/lena-lunsford

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/28/2821404/naked-man-who-tried-to-rip-the.html

Victim in ghoulish flesh-eating attack on the MacArthur Causeway identified
 
The victim of the vicious attack has been identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, who remains in critical condition at Ryder Trauma Center

The victim of the vicious flesh-eating attacker on the MacArthur Causeway on Saturday has been identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, The Miami Herald has learned.

Poppo remains in critical condition at Ryder Trauma Center with horrific facial injuries.

His attacker, killed by Miami police at the crime scene, has also been identified as Rudy Eugene, who as a teenager in the late 1990s played high school football at North Miami Beach High.

How the men's paths crossed in such a violent act remains unclear.

More recently, court records show that Eugene was married in 2005 and divorced in 2007. According to the filing, he had no income and his assets included $2 cash and $50 for a cellphone.

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Details about Eugene's life in South Florida were emerging on Tuesday.

As a teenager, he lived in North Miami-Dade, attending North Miami Beach High and North Miami High, where he was on the football team.

The Miami Herald has obtained photographs of Eugene from North Miami Beach High yearbooks. One photograph was taken in 1997; the other was taken in 1998 when he was a junior. A group shot of the high school football team incudes Eugene.

Eugene transferred to North Miami Senior for his final year of high school, North Miami Beach Principal Raymond Fontana said on Tuesday.

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http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/29/2822699/victim-in-ghoulish-flesh-eating.html
Victim in ghoulish flesh-eating attack on the MacArthur Causeway identified

 

http://blogs.miaminewtimes.com/riptide/2012/05/ronald_poppo_face_eating_victi.php

Ronald Poppo, Face Eating Victim, Had Been Shot in Bayfront Park Back in 1976
 

What a sad, waste of his life.  Maybe he can finally find some peace once he recovers.

http://www.wtsp.com/news/article/257192/250/South-Beach-cannibal-victim-identified

Ronald Poppo identified as victim of South Beach cannibal attack

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 :sad:

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/29/2822971/new-video-shows-more-grisly-detail.html

New video shows more grisly details of face-eating attack in Miami
 
New details of the horrific attack were captured in additional video footage taken by security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building.

Rudy Eugene walked naked alongside the MacArthur Causeway before pouncing on a homeless man he found dozing in the shade of the elevated Metromover train tracks.

For almost 18 grisly minutes, Eugene savaged his victim, punching him and stripping the man’s pants before gnawing off the homeless man’s face — all as cars and cyclists rolled by on the busy causeway on a sunny Saturday afternoon.

The new details of the horrific attack were captured in additional video footage taken by security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building.

At least five passersby, including a Road Ranger from the Florida Department of Transportation, called police to report what they saw of the macabre scene. Three bicyclists pedaled by the two bloody men in the minutes before the arrival of Miami police officer Jose Rivera, who shot and killed Eugene to end the attack, the new footage shows. The shooting itself was obstructed in the video, and the officer appeared to shoot Eugene within a minute of arriving.

 ::snipping2::

Police have just begun to piece together Eugene’s actions in the hours before the attack.

It appears Eugene had been in Miami Beach — in full party mode for Urban Beach Week over the Memorial Day Weekend — shortly before the attack. Eugene’s car, a purple 1995 Chevrolet Caprice, was towed for being parked illegally at 1100 10th St.

The night before, Eugene had been with his girlfriend in Miami Gardens. She reported that he was acting strangely before leaving in his car. According to police, Eugene later called her to say that his car broke down.

Still unclear is what motivated the attack. Though some have speculated that Eugene was under the influence of some kind of stimulants or other drugs that sometimes cause violent episodes, police said they found no evidence of drugs or paraphernalia at the scene. Toxicology tests of Eugene’s blood will likely take several weeks.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/29/2822699/victim-in-ghoulish-flesh-eating.html

Victim in flesh-eating attack on MacArthur Causeway had hard life on Miami streets
 
The victim of the vicious attack has been identified as 65-year-old Ronald E. Poppo, who remains in critical condition at JMH’s Ryder Trauma Center.

Ronald Poppo had a hard-knock life on the streets.

A homeless drinker who had been shot once and arrested two dozen times, he is fighting for his life at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center after an 18-minute cannibal attack that cost him most of his face. At 65, he’s been homeless for almost four decades.

His hardscrabble existence took a volatile turn Saturday afternoon, when he encountered Rudy Eugene, a 31-year-old former North Miami Beach High School football player who liked to smoke marijuana and hoped to start his own mobile car-wash business.

Eugene died in a hail of police bullets when he mauled Poppo in a sudden and unprovoked attack. Eugene will be forever remembered as the Miami Zombie.

“Rudy was not a face-eating zombie monster,” said his high school friend Victoria Forte. “The Rudy we know was a nice gentleman with a warm smile, and funny.”

It’s unclear what brought the two unlikely characters together on the MacArthur Causeway. Poppo was known for hanging out on and under the bridge there; Eugene liked to go to South Beach for Memorial Day Urban Beach Week.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/30/2824786/face-eating-victim-ronald-poppo.html

Face-eating victim Ronald Poppo was a high school achiever
 

http://www.wlbt.com/story/18641893/police-look-for-witnesses-of-face-chewing-attack

Even police shocked by gore in face-mauling attack


The poor guy. 

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/30/2824778/girlfriend-face-eating-man-was.html

Girlfriend: Face-eating man was drugged — or cursed
 
Rudy Eugene was a sweet, well-mannered man who had recently tried to stop smoking pot but had never been violent, his girlfriend said.

On the Saturday morning before he would make headlines for chewing off a man’s face –– before he would come to be known tragically as the “Miami Zombie”–– Rudy Eugene held his Bible and kissed his girlfriend goodbye.

Eugene’s on-again, off-again girlfriend said he woke her up at 5:30 a.m. to say he was going to meet with a “homeboy.” She said she found it strange he was rummaging the closet so early in morning. He didn’t name the friend or say where he was going.

He planted a kiss on her lips and said, “I love you.”

Shortly after, he left the central Broward apartment he shared with her.

“I told him be safe and I love you too. When he walked out the door I closed it, locked it and went back to sleep,” said the girlfriend, who spoke to The Miami Herald on Wednesday but asked that her name not be disclosed. She said that she thought it unusual that he was leaving the house so early, but didn’t press him on it.

An hour after he left, Eugene called her cell phone. “He called me and told me his car broke down. He said, “I’ll be home, but I’m going to be a little late. Then he said, I’m going to call you right back.” That was the last time Eugene’s girlfriend heard from him.

Around noon Saturday, she said she felt uneasy. She got into her car to search for Eugene, thinking he might still be stranded somewhere. She drove through North Miami and Miami Gardens, familiar neighborhoods Eugene frequented to visit with friends and family.

“I was worried. I couldn’t do anything. I just kept calling the phone,” she said. “I left messages saying, ‘Rudy, call me, I’m really worried.’”

She said Eugene never told her where he was going that morning, and she was surprised to hear reports that he’d been in South Beach in the hours before he attacked a homeless man, Ronald Poppo.

As a matter of fact, she said, the previous day he told her he didn’t want to go to South Beach because of the heavy police presence for Urban Beach Week. Eugene, who had been arrested in the past for possession of marijuana, told her he didn’t want to get arrested.

 ::snipping2::

Thought that I would throw this in here since it runs along the same lines as this and comments suggest "bath salts."
It is just being read by many on facebook...but, I believe it is from 2009.

Police: Woman killed her infant, ate part of brain

San Antonio police say a woman accused of beheading her 3-week-old infant son used a knife and two swords in the attack and ate some of the child's body parts.

San Antonio Police Chief William McManus told reporters Monday that Otty Sanchez's attack on her son, Scott Wesley Buchholtz-Sanchez, was "too heinous" to fully discuss.

But he says Sanchez ate part of the newborn's brain and bit off three of his toes before stabbing herself twice.
 ::snipping2::
http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-07-27-baby-killed_N.htm

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mom-miami-cannibal-dismisses-reports-a-zombie-article-1.1087945
Mom of Miami cannibal dismisses depiction of him as zombie
The woman said that she was horrified to see reports of Saturday’s attack on TV and cried for her son
By Erik Ortiz / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
May 31, 2012

The mom of the crazed cannibal who gnawed off the face of a homeless man in Miami defended him as “a good kid” Thursday and said he doesn’t deserve to be remembered as a “zombie.”

“He gave me a nice card on Mother’s Day,” Ruth Charles told CBS Miami about son Rudy Eugene. “Everyone says he was a zombie. He was no zombie. That was my son.”

The woman said that she was horrified to see reports of Saturday’s attack on TV and cried for Eugene, 31, who was discovered lying naked beside a homeless man on a sidewalk along Miami’s MacArthur Causeway. Police shot and killed Eugene when he refused to stop eating the face of victim Ronald Poppo, 65, who was also naked.

Poppo remains in critical condition after nearly 80% of his face was chewed off, police said.

A sister of Poppo told WFOR-TV that she thought he had died years ago. He graduated from Manhattan’s Stuyvesant High School in 1964.

Eugene, meanwhile, may have been under the influence of an LSD-like drug called “bath salts,” according to authorities. Toxicology reports are due in about a month.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/31/2826565/causeway-victim-among-the-chronic.html

Troubled lives clashed in MacArthur Causeway attack
 
Rudy Eugene was trying to get his life together when he viciously attacked Ronald Poppo and mutilated his face.

Saturday’s horror-movie episode on the MacArthur Causeway brought together two troubled men, one who was struggling to get his life on track, another who’d given up trying.

Rudy Eugene, 31, had been seeking spiritual guidance in Scripture. On May 24, two days before he would viciously attack a homeless man named Ronald Edward Poppo, Eugene attended a Bible-study session at a friend’s North Miami Beach home.

Recently, Eugene posted a verse from Psalm 59 on his Facebook page: “Deliver me from my enemies, O my Lord; Defend me from those who rise up against me. For the Lord God is my defense….’’

Friend Bobby Chery said he, Eugene and another friend discussed that day what they could do to become better men according to the word of God, and that Eugene vowed to give up marijuana.

That same Thursday, Miami Police rousted Poppo from one of the last places he called home: the top floor of the parking garage at Jungle Island, the Watson Island botanical and wildlife attraction.

Outreach workers from the Miami Homeless Assistance Program found him there and offered help, said Ronald Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust.

But after Poppo became “belligerent and aggressive,’’ the outreach team called police. Officers issued Poppo, who had turned 65 a week earlier, a “trespassing after warning’’ citation.

“He grabbed his box of stuff and went off,’’ said Book. Outreach workers reported he was “cursing and claiming discrimination.”

About 2 p.m. on Saturday, a naked Rudy Eugene grabbed Poppo near the causeway’s west end, stripped off his clothes, beat him, bit him, and gnawed off his face.

More than 15 minutes into the attack, a police officer arrived and shot Eugene to death. Poppo remains in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

The crazed assault shocked nearly everyone who knew Eugene.

Johansen Aurelus, a childhood friend, called Eugene “preacher” because he liked sharing Bible verses with friends and kept his Bible handy.

Aurelus attended Bethel Baptist Church with Eugene when they were teens. Back then, Aurelus said, Eugene would ask questions about the pastor’s sermons and how they applied to his life.

Over the years Rudy had some run-ins with the police for marijuana possession and a domestic dispute. Most recently, he had difficulty holding a job, friends say.

Eugene’s stepfather, Melimon Charles, of North Miami, said that Eugene “is not the kind of devil who goes out and kill people like they are showing on the news. He’s a fine boy. He was raised in the church. He was in the choir.”

Trouble may have started about the time Eugene learned Melimon was not his biological father, in ninth or tenth grade, although Melimon had been with Eugene’s mom Ruth since the boy was 2.

Rudy “was angry because he was looking for his father,” Charles said. “His father passed away and he didn’t know. And I didn’t know anything about it. I didn’t even have a picture to show him.”

Soon after, he said, Eugene accepted “the truth and we were doing fine.”

But at 17, Eugene moved out of his home, without telling his stepfather. He transferred from North Miami Beach High School to North Miami High.

 ::snipping2::

My question is, did mom cry for the man who was Eugene's lunch? 

http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474981363626
Rudy Eugene's ex talking: Miami face-chewing attacker's violent history
Edit to add article date.  MB May 29, 2012


Eugene was no angel as his family and high school friends are portraying him to be.  I'm thinking they're setting the stage for a lawsuit.

An excerpt from the article I posted earlier........so sad :-(  This whole nightmare -- a huge human tragedy :-(


Details of Poppo’s life have been surfacing in bits since the assault. The 1964 graduate of New York’s elite Stuyvesant High School grew up in Brooklyn, according to long-lost sister Antoinette Poppo.

Neither she nor Poppo’s two brothers had seen him in more than 30 years, she said, and none of them plans a trip to Miami. Two siblings live in New York, another in California.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/31/2826565_p2/causeway-victim-among-the-chronic.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/01/2828529/911-caller-hes-gonna-kill-that.html?asset_id=Causeway%20attack%20911%20calls&asset_type=html_module
911 tapes about MacArthur Causeway attack are released
Miami police released tapes of three 911 calls from people who saw parts of the encounter between Rudy Eugene and Ronald Poppo.

June 1, 2012

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/01/2827492/mauled-mans-daughter-lived-in.html

Posted on Friday, 06.01.12

Mauled man’s daughter lived in Broward
 
For months in 2008, Ronald Poppo’s long-lost daughter lived one county to the north

Ronald Poppo spent decades living on the streets of Miami.

For about a year, recently, the daughter he may never have known lived across the county line, in Broward.

The New York Daily News reported Friday that Janice Poppo DiBello lives in New Jersey, where reporters approached her on Thursday.

DiBello, a 44-year-old information technology analyst, was stunned by the news that her 65-year-old father was the victim of a bizarre attack in Miami on Saturday during which 31-year-old Rudy Eugene gnawed off Poppo’s face, the News reported.

“I’m really upset because I haven’t met my father,” DiBello said. “Since I was 2 years old, him and my mom got divorced and there was no — like how normal divorces are, where you see your father. Nobody ever heard anything from him, so I’ve never met him.

“I didn’t know if he was alive or dead.”

Poppo remains in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Public records show that DiBello lived in an apartment in the 300 block of Southwest 85th Terrace in Pembroke Pines for the first five months of 2008. It’s not clear why she and husband, Mike DiBello, were living there.

The News reported that Ronald Poppo, a Brooklynite, dropped out of college in late 1966, two years after he graduated from New York’s prestigious Stuyvesant High School and two years before his daughter’s birth to a woman now called Theresa Chesler.

“I have nothing to say,” Chesler told a News reporter. “We were divorced, probably in 1970. And nobody’s heard from him since then.”

Poppo’s daughter told the News that she tried tracking her father down about 15 years ago, unsuccessfully.

“Nothing ever came up, so I thought he was dead,” she sa

 ::snipping2::

Here ya go KittyMom


http://miami.cbslocal.com/2012/06/02/attorney-gloria-allred-now-connected-to-causeway-cannibal-case/

Attorney Gloria Allred Now Connected To Causeway Cannibal Case

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – High-powered Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred is now connected to Miami’s infamous “Causeway Cannibal” case.

June 2, 2012 12:37 PM

Allred has confirmed to CBS4 News that she is representing one of the girlfriends of Rudy Eugene, the man shot and killed by police after brutally attacking and eating the face of a homeless man over Memorial Day weekend.

It’s not clear why Allred is representing the girlfriend. Allred told CBS4 News she has no plans at the moment to release a statement, hold a press conference or visit the girlfriend in Miami.

 ::snipping2:: ::snipping2::

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/fl-ronald-poppo-bad-news-20120605,0,6125762.story
6:17 p.m. EDT, June 5, 2012
Surgeon: Left without a face, victims all say 'I've become a monster'


I hope this man can reunite with his family and finally find some peace.   ::MonkeyAngel::

http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/Attorney-of-Man-Eaters-Girlfriend-Talks-About-Relationship--157471955.html

Attorney of Man Eater’s Girlfriend to Talk About Relationship
Gloria Allred will speak about the relationship between Rudy Eugene and his girlfriend Wednesday
By Karen Yi
|  Wednesday, Jun 6, 2012  |  Updated 10:20 AM EDT

The attorney representing the man eater’s girlfriend is hosting a press conference Wednesday afternoon to discuss the relationship her client had with the MacArthur attacker.

High-profile attorney Gloria Allred is representing Yovonka Bryant, who has identified herself as one of Rudy Eugene’s girlfriends. Allred confirmed with NBC 6 Saturday she would be representing Bryant but did not disclose why.

Allred said she will discuss the relationship between Eugene and Bryant in the months prior to the attack.

Eugene was shot and killed by police over Memorial Day weekend after he mauled off more than 80 percent of another man’s face, authorities said.

See Photos of the MacArthur Attack

Several passers-by saw the gruesome attack that left 65-year-old Ronald Poppo critically injured in the hospital. On Tuesday, yet another batch of 911 calls were released by police, describing Eugene moments before he pounced on his victim.

“There’s a tall African American man completely naked on one of the light bulbs acting like Tarzan and all his clothes are on the highway,” one caller tells a 911 dispatcher at 1:54 p.m. on May 26.

In another call, made around the same time, a witness says there is a man standing “naked as a jaybird” in the street.

 ::snipping2::

Thanks!  Sadly, the ambulance chasers have found a new way to drum up dollars.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/06/2836421/publicity-hound-lawyer-cannibalism.html

Posted on Wednesday, 06.06.12

Publicity-hound lawyer: Cannibalism is bad

By Fred Grimm
fgrimm@MiamiHerald.com

Finally, someone — someone right here in Miami — had the courage to take a stand against the great scourge of our time.

Oh... not that scourge. Not child obesity or one-percenters or sexually transmitted diseases or radical Islam or Citizens United or greedy bankers or Burmese pythons or Greek tax evaders or Iranian nukes or unmanned drones or union busters or feral pigs or Facebook IPOs or destination casinos or Boston Celtics or illicit voters or even Donald Trump.

No. Gloria Allred came to town Wednesday to warn us — those of us who might have been wavering in our resolve — that “cannibalism is a serious issue and is very dangerous to the health and the well-being of the cannibal and the victim.”

Not necessarily in that order.

The ubiquitous Allred organized a press conference on behalf of Yovonka Bryant “to help her have a voice.” Bryant, a slender, striking 27-year-old Miramar woman, stood next to Allred and told how over the last four months she had been the girlfriend of Rudy Eugene, the man who police shot dead on the MacArthur Causeway May 26. That attack had been of such inexplicable brutality that the case has since been inundated in international publicity. Some of us cynics assumed that the astounding media coverage explained the sudden appearance in Miami by Allred, who seems to hover around notorious criminal cases like a moth to Klieg lights.

 ::snipping2::

The only morsel of news that spilled out of the press conference was Bryant’s insistence that, contrary to a police record of eight arrests, including a threat against his own mother, and the unhappy memories of his ex-wife, Rudy Eugene was a model boyfriend, who avoided drugs (except for one brief indulgence in marijuana), was religious and loved playing with her three kids. They called him “Uncle Beard.” Another girlfriend has also been quoted in the media since Eugene was killed. It was important, Allred said, for us to know the other girlfriend was not this girlfriend.

Allred did not allow Bryant to veer from her prepared written statement. Bryant read, “Rudy and I never discussed cannibalism or voodoo.”

Which was all we really needed to know.

http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/1206/06/ijvm.01.html
JANE VELEZ-MITCHELL
Designer Drug Causing Violent Behavior?
Aired June 6, 2012 - 19:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

 ::snipping2::
And also tonight, we`re talking about another very serious and extremely important health issue which everybody in our country needs to be aware of. It is the widely popular use of a new designer rug called bath salts. Now, that`s not what you put in your tub. These are highly addictive drugs that are causing violent and even psychotic behavior.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL (voice-over): Tonight, more and more cases of incomprehensible violence being tied to the designer drug bath salts. The drug now linked to a Louisiana man cops say bit another man`s face. This on the heels of the Miami man suspected to be to be on the very same drug, who ate the face of a homeless man. Hear what that now-dead suspect`s girlfriend has to say about it tonight.

Why are these so-called bath salts still for sale? We`re talking to experts, and we`re taking your calls.
 ::snipping2::
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We know there are cases these days of people taking bath salts and things like that and doing terrible, violent, bizarre things.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I`ve never experienced anything like that with bath salts or anything like that before.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s worse than anyone could ever imagine, ever. It`s the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: For 20 bucks, people are buying this, bath salts to get high, and its high is causing people to wind up here in the hospital.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: A naked man named Rudy Eugene viciously tore into another man`s face. Now we hear that Rudy Eugene may have been using bath salts and that this strange new drug was possibly behind his deranged attack.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bath salts could definitely have done this. We also know that it causes extreme paranoia, delusions and hallucinations.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Jane Velez-Mitchell coming to you live from New York City tonight.

It has happened again. Another baffling case of psychotic violence that cops say could be linked to the use of so-called bath salts. Tonight, at least three cases of flesh eating across the southern United States could be tied to the scary drug that`s actually legal in 17 states. Why? I`m asking that question tonight.

We told you about the Miami man who was shot and killed by cops because he was eating the flesh off of a homeless man`s face. And it was all caught on surveillance cameras.

Well, now, cops say that the attacker may have used bath salts before he became psychotically violent. His girlfriend held a news conference just a little while ago, expressing shock and saying she had absolutely no knowledge that he had a drug problem. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOVONKA BRYANT, GIRLFRIEND OF RUDY EUGENE: Rudy never drank alcohol or used drugs around me. I only saw him smoke a marijuana cigarette once. I am looking forward to learning the results of the toxicology report, and I hope that no one will ever have to go through or suffer what Rudy and his victim did.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: And this isn`t the only case involving flesh eating and alleged bath salt use. Cops say a man in Louisiana attacked his neighbor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: During the attack, the suspect bit a chunk of the victim`s face off.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: So what happens when somebody takes this drug? Let`s listen to a self-admitted ex-bath salt addict talk about his wrenching experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I`ve never experienced anything like that doing bath salt or anything like that before. And it really actually scared me pretty bad, because I was hallucinating about being in a mental institution, in an insane asylum, basically, and something about Jason Bourne and getting possessed by him. And I felt -- I flipped out all kinds of crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Look at him. Look at him here. He`s a totally different person. Look at him on bath salts. And some people say that this kind of makes you feel evil and demonic.

Do you think bath salts should be banned nationwide? I certainly do. Get rid of it. Call me: 1-877-JVM-SAYS, 1-877-586-7297.

Straight out to my exclusive guest. He goes only by the name Tyler, who says he was addicted to bath salts for two long months before getting clean 36 days ago.

First of all, Tyler, as somebody who`s sober 17 years, those first few days are the toughest, especially, apparently, with this particular drug. Tyler, how did you get involved with bath salts? Where did you get it, and tell us the story?

TYLER (via phone): Well, I was currently getting it from a strip club at one time. It`s also being sold at gas stations. I got introduced to it first hand by the strip club owner, and it`s a pretty expensive drug to buy.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Describe the high, because obviously nobody wants to become psychotic. Nobody wants to suddenly be uncontrollable and attacking people, but apparently this high is quite extraordinary and highly addictive. Tell us about that. What does it feel like?

TYLER: It`s -- it`s super addictive. You really don`t know that you have a problem the entire time you`re on it. And once you keep using for longer periods of time, you do feel like you`re possessed. And you feel evil and you feel like the whole world is out to get you and you pretty much just lose control.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Did you feel paranoid? Did you exhibit any strange behavior?

TYLER: Definitely. I was constantly looking out my windows and trying to figure out who was trying to follow me. And I felt like the government was out to get me. I felt like I honestly was possessed by the devil. But at the time I had no idea I had a problem until I went through treatment and realized that I had huge problems.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: What does a person act like when they`re high on bath salts? A&E actually followed a bath salt user while he was doing drugs, and you`ve got to see this from A&E`s "Intervention." It`s scary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He built a weapon to fight the phase people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He has obsession with building things to combat the voices.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: This guy is using his golf club with a bunch of other stuff.

Dr. Alexander Garrard, clinical toxicologist, Poison Control Center. He`s using golf clubs to create weapons to fight invisible people that he calls shadow people. He became kind of, well, seemingly a lunatic. What happens, Dr. Alexander Garrard, to the inside? I`ve heard people say that they feel like they`re boiling up inside. What goes on?

DR. ALEXANDER GARRARD, CLINICAL TOXICOLOGIST: These new, synthetic bath salts are just -- it`s a real threat here to the country. They are a mix between, like amphetamines and cocaine. They take, really, what`s the worse out of each drug class and they all combine it into a new, synthetic compound. And we really have no idea what`s in it. We have an idea, but there`s a lot of adulterants, a lot of contaminants and all those things could affect what we`re seeing.
VELEZ-MITCHELL: I want to go to Maddie Garrett. She`s a reporter with KATC in Louisiana. Tell us about the Louisiana case which is really horrifying.

MADDIE GARRETT, REPORTER, KATC: That`s right. We do know that a man not only attacked an elderly woman before going to an acquaintance`s house, an ex-wife`s new boyfriend. He didn`t know him and attacked him in his front yard. He bit off a large chunk of his face. And that victim actually had to spray him with wasp spray to try to stop the attack.

And it didn`t even end there. He went to another acquaintance`s house, threatened him with a bloody knife and told him he needed to steal his gun. He was threatening to harm that person and himself. It wasn`t until later when he left with that gun that police were able to apprehend him.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Experts say taking bath salts is like being on mushrooms, meth, coke, all at one. It`s been compared to PCP except stronger. Watch this from A&E`s "Intervention," which shows a bath salt addict in the middle of a hallucination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Skylar will be distracted by shadows he thinks he sees.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little shadow walked by. Don`t you see it? Yes. You can feel it, actually. I mean, it kind of sucks, but that`s his head right there. Oh, my God. Yes. That`s the body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: He`s seeing invisible people. Jon Lieberman, investigative reporter, what is the status of this? Is it an epidemic?

JON LIEBERMAN, INVESTIGATIVE REPORTER: Well, I`ve got to tell you, cops that we`re talking to say that we`re on the verge of an epidemic. We had crack in the `80s. We had crystal meth in 2000. And they believe that this could be the next drug.

And I mean, they point to certain cases that are just -- that are just crazy. A Maine woman who thought her teeth were filled with ticks and so she tried to cut them out with a knife. Another guy hops out of his car in Maine and starts hitting other cars with pieces of wood.

Here`s the biggest problem. This drug is so readily available. Banned or not, these bans aren`t doing anything. Today online I found, under no fewer than 50 different names, bath salts. They`ll ship them to you overnight if you want them.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Tyler, you used bath salts. Did you feel yourself becoming violent? And what about this face eating, this eating of human flesh? What is behind that, do you think?

TYLER: Yes. If you use it long enough, I feel like you will end up into that flesh-eating mode. Luckily, I only used it for two months, and I got to the paranoia stage, where I was seeing shadow people. I was taking apart electronics and pretty much everything that you guys have been describing besides the cannibal stage. And if people continue to use, it`s going to get ridiculous.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well, you know, this is a terrible drug, because it takes the combination of methamphetamine and the paranoia and the aggressiveness, and the LSD, the hallucinations, and PCP, the extreme paranoia that you get, and combines it into one and has unpredictable effects on human behavior.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Unpredictable? That`s an understatement. Bath salts suspected in the Miami flesh-eating incident. A homeless man lost most of his face, because it was gnawed off.

Here`s what the alleged attacker`s girlfriend said just a little while ago in a news conference.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRYANT, GIRLFRIEND OF RUDY EUGENE: Rudy never drank alcohol or used drugs around me. I only saw him smoke a marijuana cigarette once. Rudy and I never discussed cannibalism or voodoo, and most likely he was given a drug without his knowledge.

I am looking forward to learning the results of the toxicology report, and I hope that no one will ever have to go through or suffer what Rudy and his victim did.

GLORIA ALLRED, ATTORNEY: Had she had any indication that Mr. Eugene could or would engage in an act of cannibalism, she never would have allowed him around her three children.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Preliminary toxicology reports show Rudy Eugene did have pot in his system, but they`re waiting for the tox results to come back to confirm or deny whether he was using bath salts. Police do suspect it. Bryant believes Rudy Eugene was given the drug without his knowledge, if in fact, he was given the drug.

Look at these brand names for bath salts. How would somebody know? Perhaps he was given bath salts surreptitiously by somebody. I mean, this is absolutely a nightmare.

Wendy Murphy, former prosecutor, you can buy it anywhere. It costs only 20 bucks, and it makes you psychotic to the point, as one of the users just said it. He`s in recovery, thank God. He said if he had continued to do it, he probably could have ended up flesh eating human flesh, as well.

WENDY MURPHY, FORMER PROSECUTOR: You know, Jane, I don`t know whether to cry, vomit or make a joke about zombies. This kind of story is so disturbing. I`ve never seen anything like this, much less in these high numbers.

And I hope your show scares people because, you know, the down side of talking a lot about this is you see copycats and more people doing it: "Ooh, that sounds cool."

I`m a little bit perplexed by the connection between you turn demonic and you start eating flesh. Because, you know, with "The Exorcist," nobody was biting faces. I have to believe that there`s something about the mixture of culture and its increased willingness to sell violence as exciting and sexy.

And you combine that with a drug like this and you get people literally doing inhumane things that 20 years ago, no matter what the hell drug you were on, you wouldn`t be doing this.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I don`t disagree with you. I think that the horrific stuff that`s on the Internet and some of these movies is such violence that when people are drugged out it occurs to them, where it wouldn`t have occurred to them, maybe back in the 1940s or `50s.

I want to go out to the phone lines. Casey, Ohio, your question or thought. Casey.

CALLER: I, Jane, I want to share a little bit of knowledge with what I`ve experienced with bath salts.

I have an uncle who, when this came out, became very highly addicted to bath salts very quickly. And the most gentle man in the whole world, he would never harm anyone (UNINTELLIGIBLE).

One night, he was so mad and so angry on bath salts that he physically assaulted me, beat me up, knocked my teeth out, four of my front teeth. This was a man who was like my father who raised me. He was injecting it, injecting bath salts.

And -- and it took him going to jail. And you know, he`s straight now that he`s out. And we`re in Ohio so it`s illegal, but you can still find it just like marijuana is illegal. You can find marijuana.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, Casey, that`s a horrifying story, and I want to go to Jameson Monroe, founder of the Newport Academy, an addiction specialist. You can snort it. You can shoot it up. Do you think it`s more intense if you do it in a certain way that could make you more violent?

JAMESON MONROE, FOUNDER, NEWPORT ACADEMY: Just like with any drug, Jane, if you smoke something or shoot it up, it`s going to get into your bloodstream a lot quicker and be a lot more intense.

But we`re seeing kids at Newport Academy that are drinking it, that are mixing it in food, that are sprinkling it on top of a bowl of marijuana and smoking it that way. Any way to get it into your system. What`s crazy is that kids are able to go buy this at the head shop with no I.D. for $20 that their parents gave them for their lunch money and go get high for six to eight hours and become immediately addicted.

I`ve never seen any drug this addictive or create this type of mania in such a short time period. You don`t have to be a drug addict. You can be a regular pot smoker, try this stuff one time, and it`s off to the races. It`s that addictive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It`s worse than anyone could ever imagine -- ever. It`s the worst thing I have ever seen in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is attacking nervous systems, muscular systems, and brain activity and deteriorating it far sooner than any other drug I`ve ever seen, and I`ve been around meth, coke, heroin, crack.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Straight out to HLN`s very own Dr. Drew Pinsky.

Dr. Drew, we need your help here. This is legal in so many states. And from what I`ve been able to determine, it`s under so many different brand names that have so many different ingredients that they ban one ingredient while they just mix it up and they make it with another ingredient. And they just haven`t reissued it. So it`s very hard to keep track of, Dr. Drew.

DREW PINSKY, HLN ANCHOR: That`s exactly right, Jane. The manufacturers are staying one step ahead of the regulators by changing the molecule ever so slightly.

And Jane, you and I have shared the studio out here for a long time. I just walked up the street in Hollywood Boulevard and was able to walk into a smoke shop in which there are just dozens and dozens along Hollywood Boulevard, and I bought myself some designer drug. I bought myself some bath salts. I bought some spice. No problem, right over the counter.

They want to know if you`re 18. That is one thing they do want to know. But beyond that, I got my hand on some bath salts. And on the package is says, "Does not contain MDPV," methylenedioxypyrovalerone. That`s code for "does contain this. You`ve got the right stuff, guys."

And kids, young adults can walk right up, and as you`re seeing right there on the screen, hallucinosis, agitation, happens very quickly and really, as much as a mania, as one of your guests said, it causes them encephalopathy where the hallmarks are complete lack of insight, extreme violence and really wild, bizarre behavior.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, I`ve got to say. Here`s one other case. A homeless man in Miami lunged at cops trying to bite them, and he threatened to eat them. Cops had to put this Brandon De Leon in restraints and a bite mask. This is out of a horror movie.

Dr. Drew, what is this with the biting and the human flesh eating that seems to be -- I`m not jumping to any conclusions -- but seems to be associated with a lot of these cases that are connected to bath salts?

PINSKY: Yea, the violence, the bloodiness and the -- what we can only call sort of an oral aggression.

I think I would caution, Jane, anyone against trying to make rational conclusions about irrational encephalopathic behavior. The brain, as many of your guests and callers have said, is merely discharging in ways that are completely unregulated and abnormal.

And as a result, you`re seeing these bizarre and you`re seeing right here in the footage alongside of me. That is not somebody connected to reality. That`s not someone whose brain is functioning in a way that is normal or even applies standards of logic or rationality.

It`s a brain that`s severely dysfunctional and the manifestations are hallucinosis, agitation, paranoia, violence, and as you saw here, there`s a lot of aggression around the mouth. So whenever you hear people getting involved in bloody kinds of altercations where there`s biting, you`ve got to think about bath salts.

VELEZ-MITCHELL: Well, it kind of makes sense. With meth, you know that they pick at their face, and they grind their teeth. That`s why meth mouth. And they have certain characteristics.

This is also apparently, seemingly -- I`m not the doctor; you are, but it seems to be a characteristic of this bath salts, to be biting other fellow humans.

PINSKY: It does seem to be. And all of this stuff that really is again, the two really disturbing parts, aside from the fact that all of these behaviors are disturbing. But the thing that I guess is scariest is that these kinds of extreme phenomenon develop very quickly.

You`re hearing everybody say, the addiction is quick. The side effects are quick to develop. And then once they have developed, the individual who is sick has -- seems to have no insight. They don`t realize there`s a problem. You heard over and again. They say, "Well, my grandmother is possessed by the devil. That`s just a fact. I`ve got to get her. I`m going to go kill her because, well, she`s possessed by the devil." And no insight into, for instance, this gentleman you`re looking at now -- into the fact that he is in serious trouble.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/08/2840020/cannibal-had-no-flesh-in-stomach.html

Causeway attacker had no human flesh in stomach

Posted on Friday, 06.08.12

Rudy Eugene used his teeth to savage a homeless man, but an autopsy revealed he had no human flesh in his stomach. He did have undigested pills.

By DAVID OVALLE
dovalle@MiamiHerald.com

The world is calling Rudy Eugene, who chewed off a homeless man’s face, a cannibal — but an autopsy shows there was no human flesh in his stomach.

The post-death examination did reveal a number of undigested pills in his stomach, but investigators have not identified them yet, a law-enforcement source told The Miami Herald.

 ::snipping2::

Eugene’s autopsy records have not been released to the public, and will likely not become available until Miami-Dade prosecutors finish their review of the shooting. That could take more than a year.

A preliminary review found the presence of marijuana in Eugene’s system, a law enforcement source said, which was no surprise because Eugene’s family and friends widely reported that he was fond of smoking pot.

But marijuana doesn’t usually spark violent attacks. Whether the pills found in his stomach played a role in Eugene’s outburst of violence is unknown. Toxicology tests will take weeks to complete.

Investigators assume some type of drug fueled Eugene’s bizarre behavior, but they have no indication that he may have used “bath salts,” a synthetic stimulant that in some cases can lead to psychotic episodes, paranoia and violence. Miami’s police union has speculated that Eugene might have been acting under the influence of bath salts.

 ::snipping2::

The autopsy finding that Eugene had no human flesh in his stomach jibes with the crime-scene investigation, which found chunks of Poppo’s flesh on the ground, as if they had been spit out. The autopsy also revealed human flesh lodged between the teeth of Eugene, who did not have his two top front teeth, the law enforcement source said. Eugene is known to have lost his two front teeth in an accident as a child.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57450032/funeral-held-for-miami-man-in-face-chewing-attack/
Funeral held for Miami man in face chewing attack
June 9, 2012

(AP) MIAMI - Mourners are gathering to remember the man police say chewed off the face of a homeless man on a busy Miami highway.

A funeral was held Saturday for 31-year-old Rudy Eugene. Police shot and killed Eugene during a bizarre attack over Memorial Day weekend. The Miami Herald reported about 150 people attended the service.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/09/2840897/at-funeral-friends-remember-causeway.html

Posted on Saturday, 06.09.12

Family, friends remember causeway attacker as kind, caring

Friends and relatives of the MacArthur Causeway attacker consoled each other at his memorial service.

By Nadege Green and Rene Rodriguez
ngreen@MiamiHerald.com

Family and friends gathered Saturday to say a tearful goodbye to Rudy Eugene, whose body lay in a silver and gray casket topped with white blossoms centered in front of Miami’s Grace Funeral Home.

The person that everyone remembered Saturday in a two-hour memorial service was Rudy Eugene, a loving relative, a close friend - not the crazed, naked man, now known as the “Miami Zombie” or “Causeway Cannibal” who shocked the world with an attack so bizarre that it still defies explanation.

No one at Saturday’s service could understand the situation that led Miami police to shoot their loved one several times to stop a vicious attack on a homeless drifter named Ronald Poppo, leaving his face horribly disfigured.

This was Rudy Eugene, 31, who was “the type of person who would give you his last,’’ his younger brother, Markenson Charles, said to the crowd of about 150. “If he had it, it was yours.”

Charles described a big brother who would pay his cell phone bill, and even throw in a little extra cash when money was tight.

“Those are the moments I cherish the most, him being a big brother to me,” Charles said.

Ruth Charles, dressed in a black and white polka dot skirt and white blazer, shuffled slowly to the front pew, past her son’s casket.

With her head bowed and tears streaming down her face, she swayed from side to side. Hers were the bitter tears of a mother losing a son to inexplicable circumstances.

The memorial program handed out at the service commemorated the life of “a boy who aspired to be the best, to a man who was focused on enjoying his piece of the American dream” by owning a car detailing business.

“His ambition, tenacity and unwavering belief in God would have been enough for his dreams to become a reality,” the program read.

A friend in a black and purple dress broke down in uncontrollable sobs as she clutched the program.

“Rudy wake up, wake up, wake up,” she shouted,

Those closest to Rudy called him “Sweat.” The moniker came from him having sweaty palms, but also because he wasn’t afraid to work hard, his brother said.

“Rudy was always a very affectionate person,” said Charles. Sometimes, he would tell his brother to cut it out and stop hugging and kissing him.

“What I wouldn’t give for a kiss right now,” he said, his eyes red with tears.

Pastor Keny Felix, who had known Eugene since childhood, when the youth attended Sunday school at Bethel Baptist Evangelical Church, told the crowd to remember Ronald Poppo, the 65-year-old man Eugene attacked.

“This morning, I ask, as you grieve, you remember Mr. Ronald in your prayers,” he said.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/12/doctors-say-victim-miami-face-chewing-attack-is-awake-alert/
Doctors say victim of Miami face-chewing attack is awake, alert
June 12, 2012

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/06/12/2845353/update-on-homeless-man-attacked.html

Man attacked on causeway has possible bullet holes in chest

Posted on Tuesday, 06.12.12

By Elinor J. Brecher and Luisa Yanez
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com

Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Tuesday said the homeless man mauled on the MacArthur Causeway has holes in his chest that may be bullet wounds.

Nicholas Namias, head of trauma at Ryder and his physician, disclosed that Ronald Poppo had two “mysterious” punctures in his chest.

During the causeway confrontation, a Miami police officer fired four shots, killing attacker Rudy Eugene.

Doctors also confirmed that he lost his left eye in the attack, and his right eye is severely damaged and he may be blind.

Poppo also suffered a brain injury during the attack, much like a car crash victim.

But despite all the problems, his medical team said Poppo is doing much better and is even following the Miami Heat’s championship run.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/06/27/medical-examiner-finds-only-marijuana-in-miami-face-chewer-system/
Medical examiner rules out bath salts in Miami face-chewing attack
June 27, 2012

MIAMI –  Lab tests detected only marijuana in the system of a Florida man shot while chewing another man's face, the medical examiner said Tuesday, ruling out other street drugs including the components typically found in the stimulants known as bath salts.

There has been much speculation about what drugs, if any, would lead to the bizarre behavior that authorities said Rudy Eugene exhibited before and during the gruesome attack that left the other man horribly disfigured. A Miami police union official had suggested that Eugene, who was shot and killed by an officer, was probably under the influence of bath salts.

The Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner said in a news release that the toxicology detected marijuana, but it didn't find any other street drugs, alcohol or prescription drugs. Eugene also tested negative for adulterants commonly mixed with street drugs.

The department ruled out the most common components found in bath salts, which mimic the effects of cocaine or methamphetamine and have been associated with bizarre crimes in recent months. An outside forensic toxicology lab, which took a second look at the results, also confirmed the absence of bath salts, synthetic marijuana and LSD.
 ::snipping2::
t's not clear what led to the May 26 attack on Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man who remains hospitalized. Eugene's friends and family have said he was religious, not violent and that he didn't drink or do drugs harder than marijuana.

"There's no answer for it, not really," Eugene's younger brother, Marckenson Charles, said in an interview. "Anybody who knew him knows this wasn't the person we knew him to be. Whatever triggered him, there is no answer for this."

Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene stripping Poppo and pummeling him, before appearing to hunch over and lie on top of him. The police officer who shot Eugene to death said he growled at the officer when he told him to stop.

Charles, Eugene's brother, said the family does not plan to pursue any legal action against the police for shooting Eugene.

"They used the force they felt was necessary, even if we don't agree with that,' he said.

He said that Eugene has been buried.
 ::snipping2::

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/14/2895973/the-unraveling-of-rudy-eugene.html


Posted on Saturday, 07.14.12

MacArthur Causeway attacker
The unraveling of Rudy Eugene, aka the causeway face attacker

His descent from ‘sweet and kind’ young man into violent enigma

By Nadege Green and Audra D.S. Burch
ngreen@MiamiHerald.com

Ruth Charles could not find a Haitian church in Miami to hold a funeral for her son, Rudy Eugene.

The brutal details of his attack on a homeless man, the roaring headlines, the whispers of Vodou or demonic possession, all conspired against Charles, who simply wanted to bury her son with a proper church service and then return to a quiet, anonymous life with a fiancé and two younger sons.

The first church said no, followed by the second. The third said yes then backed out. Same for the fourth church.

The news of Eugene’s death on Memorial Day weekend was already too well known. He was shot to death by Miami police as he crouched over Ronald Poppo’s limp body, naked and growling, chewing off chunks of the man’s face. It took several bullets fired by a stunned police officer to stop him. At 31, the son who had carried a Bible, quoted scripture and worn a four-inch cross on a chain around his neck had become something unrecognizable, known across the nation as the Miami zombie.

Two weeks after Eugene died, a funeral home chapel agreed to hold a service. His mother shuffled into the chapel, sank into a front pew and quietly cried throughout the hourlong service.

“I felt so much frustration. I was angry,” said Charles, 57, though she would not name the churches who had turned her down. “They were members of my Haitian community. They turned their back on me.”

Yet faith remains a recurring theme in the story of Eugene’s life — and in his horrifying death. It is why he evangelized, led a Bible study for friends and had recently been looking for a church home. It is what sent his mother door to door, looking for a church that would have her son’s funeral. It is why police found verses ripped from his Bible scattered across the MacArthur Causeway a few feet from his body. And, perhaps, it is what helps people understand what happened that afternoon.

“Religion and culture are playing a huge role in this story. And because this is very much a story that makes no sense, religion is being used as a framework for understanding,’’ says Michelle Gonzalez Maldonado, a University of Miami associate professor of religious studies. “People are using their belief of evil spirits, of dark and light, to try to explain what happened that day.’’

Charles’ fiancé, Raymond Leo, who was with Charles each time a church said no, said she put on a brave face in public but crumbled behind closed doors, overwhelmed by grief and rejection.

“When you’re a Christian, you want the funeral to be in the church,’’ he said. “That’s the way it’s supposed to be.’’

Fast cars, sports and marijuana

Before Rudy Eugene became infamous, he was a fairly ordinary guy — he liked sports, fast cars, action movies. But even those closest to him say Eugene was introspective and private. Now they are left wondering if that quiet shielded something darker, something that drove him to break with reality on a Saturday afternoon in May. Though it was widely speculated that Eugene was under the influence of “bath salts,” a powerful synthetic amphetamine that has fueled a handful of grisly flesh-eating attacks across the country, toxicology tests showed Eugene’s body was clean except for marijuana. A lingering question remains, though — especially among experts — because some synthetic drugs are undetectable. Mental illness could also be a factor, though none of his friends or family say they noticed anything that would lead to that conclusion .

 ::snipping2::

http://tinyurl.com/9aorgj8
http://preview.tinyurl.com/9aorgj8

Ronald Poppo Tapes: Face-Eating Victim Says Rudy Eugene 'Just Ripped Me To Ribbons' (VIDEO)

Posted: 08/08/2012 10:40 pm Updated: 08/09/2012 12:01 am

For the first time, Ronald Poppo can be heard describing the day a naked North Miami man attacked him and chewed off most of his face -- and then thanking police for saving his life.

“He just ripped me to ribbons," the 65-year-old calmly told police on interview recordings obtained by CBS Miami. "He chewed up my face. He plucked out my eyes... And basically that’s all there is to say about it.”

 ::snipping2::

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/09/08/2992068/film-crew-recreates-gruesome-macarthur.html

Posted on Saturday, 09.08.12

Film crew recreates gruesome MacArthur Causeway attack

By Marsha Halper
mhalper@MiamiHerald.com

A film crew spent hours Saturday recreating the vicious attack on the MacArthur Causeway, in which a homeless man had his face chewed off on Memorial Day weekend.

The crew, which declined requests for an interview, started shooting at about 11 a.m. Motorists driving by the scene and even passengers aboard a double-decker tour bus seemed confused by the disturbing scene. Those within earshot could hear the film's director shouting orders such as, "More violent!," to the two actors playing the role of the attacker, Rudy Eugene, and the victim, Ronald Poppo.

 ::snipping2::

i dont understand the need for a movie,all the action was caught
on the Miami Herald building security camera footage

Timeline: Face-eating attack in Miami (with narration)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1nFLIiVxwVI

No, I don't understand the need for a move either.   ::MonkeyNoNo::

http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/12/25/3156401/ronald-poppo-victim-of-causeway.html

Posted on Tuesday, 12.25.12

Causeway victim Ronald Poppo finds peace but not healing
Months after he was savagely attacked and his face gnawed, a homeless man remains blind. But he’s in a safe place brimming with holiday spirit.

BY ELINOR J. BRECHER
ebrecher@MiamiHerald.com

When Ronald Poppo was a kid in the 1950s and ’60s, a family Christmas in Brooklyn meant wind-up model trains circling the tree, Italian dinners of lasagna and stuffed squid, and, because Dec. 25 was also his father’s birthday, ricotta-filled cassata cake.

There was always music, because the Poppos have musical talent. Ronnie, as his older sister and two older brothers called him, played the violin as a child and guitar as a teenager.

And there was church, Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as their mother was a devout Baptist.

An aunt brought Christmas presents, recalled Ronald’s sister, Antoinette Poppo, who still lives in New York.

“We were poor, but we didn’t know we were poor,’’ she said.

It’s hard to say when Ronald Poppo last enjoyed childhood Christmas memories, had a merry — or even comfortable — Christmas. After vanishing from the family in the early 1970s, he encamped on the gritty streets of Miami, an inebriated vagrant drifting ever further from the mainstream.

His last known home was the concrete stairwell of a tourist-attraction parking garage.

He surfaced again May 26 as the hapless victim in one of South Florida’s most sensational, blood-drenched crimes. That day, a naked, crazed, 31-year-old Rudy Eugene attacked 65-year-old Poppo on the MacArthur Causeway, stripping away his clothes then gnawing on Poppo’s face, leaving him mutilated and blind.

Police shot and killed Eugene about 18 minutes into the assault.

Through news of the event, Poppo’s stunned siblings learned he’d been alive all along, and people from his past began to emerge with snippets of information about his life before he disappeared onto the streets.

Following intensive medical treatment at Jackson Memorial Hospital, Poppo moved to Jackson Memorial Perdue Medical Center, an 11-acre, 163-bed nursing home/rehab facility in South Miami-Dade, its halls now cheerily decked with holiday decorations.

He has refused all interview requests since the incident, and apart from allowing doctors to hold a news conference in June, he hasn’t authorized his treating physicians to talk about his medical condition.

Jackson officials closely guard his privacy.

Photos displayed at the June news conference showed Poppo’s face as a mass of clots and raw tissue, his eye sockets hidden under flaps of skin, his nose gone, his cheeks and forehead partially so. Doctors had to remove one mangled eyeball but at the time hoped to save the other, and at least some sight.

They weren’t able to.

His sister says that when they talk, brother Ronnie doesn’t mention the attack, the past, or how he spends his time. But he did recently say that he likes his accommodations and the people who care for him.

“He says they take him outside and walk him around the place,’’ Antoinette Poppo said. “He’s glad to be there. ... He doesn’t really talk much at all. He says, ‘Take care of yourself.’ It’s so sad he can’t see, and has to depend on other people.’’

He told her that “his face hasn’t healed yet,’’ but that he doesn’t want more surgery because “it’s going to hurt.’’
 
::snipping2::

Wow.  I had wondered if he would have infections.  I've always heard the human mouth is very germy.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-out-of-sight-poppo-20130525,0,3734400.story

Living blind: How Causeway Cannibal victim and others forge on
By Mike Clary, Sun Sentinel

8:27 p.m. EDT, May 25, 2013

In a briefing on the medical condition of Causeway Cannibal victim Ronald Poppo, doctors and therapists last week expressed confidence that the longtime homeless man blinded in a vicious assault could once again lead an independent life.

But in the year since Poppo was disfigured in the unprovoked attack, progress has been slow.

"At first, he didn't even want to learn to walk," said John Clapp, a mobility specialist with the Miami Lighthouse for the Blind. "But finally he began to accept me more, to trust, and I started to teach him the cane."

Still, said Clapp, "he doesn't know all the possibilities available to him."

No matter what triggers a sudden descent into darkness — a bullet to the head, a botched surgery, eye disease or a beating — the first reaction to permanent blindness is almost always the same, experts say.

 ::snipping3::

I wish Ronald Poppo all the best and I hope he can make a new life.  I can't imagine the difficulties he's facing.