Miami officer shoots, kills naked attacker Rudy Eugene

[KittyMom]

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

The newspaper quoted witnesses as saying that the officer ordered the naked man to back away, and when he ignored the demand, the officer shot him. Witnesses said that the naked man continued his attack after being shot once, and the officer shot him several more times.

Police said the other man was transported to Jackson Memorial Hospital Ryder Trauma Center. The newspaper said he had suffered critical injuries.

   Is there a full moon?

Edit to add name to subject line.  MB

[sharon]

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

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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.

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[MuffyBee]

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


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.
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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."

[KittyMom]

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'

Augilar said he suspects the attacker, identified as 31-year-old Rudy Eugene, was under the influence of "bath salts." Four other drug use instances in Miami-Dade bear resemblances to Saturday's attack, he told WPLG.

"It causes them to go completely insane and become very violent" and take off their clothes, Augilar told WPLG.

Dr. Paul Adams, an emergency room physician at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami, told CNN affiliate WBFS that the drug makes users delirious. They exhibit elevated temperatures and extreme physical strength, Adams said.

The victim of Saturday's attack, whom police have not identified, was in critical condition at Jackson Memorial on Monday, according to the WPLG report. Augilar told WPLG that 75% to 80% of his face was missing.

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

[sharon]

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

[KittyMom]

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

[labubske]

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

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.

[sharon]

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.
 
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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.

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[KittyMom]

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.   

[sharon]

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

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.

I agree labubske. Just horrifying.

[KittyMom]

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

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.

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!

[sharon]

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.   

Also horrifying

[labubske]

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.   

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. 

[labubske]

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.   

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

[sharon]

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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[KittyMom]

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

 

His faceless victim, who police sources identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, is hanging on to his life at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center.

Photos taken at the scene showed Poppo, who is believed to be homeless, was left with gruesome injuries.

He has a record of at least 24 arrests going back to 1978, mostly for drinking in public and trespassing, but also a handful of felony arrests for burglary, assault and resisting arrest.

The record suggests that he’s been on the streets a long time: He was arrested for sleeping in public in 1983.
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Metayer said Eugene, the son of Haitian immigrants, grew up in North Miami Beach. He was a football player who Forte said was best known for cracking jokes and a warm smile.

[KittyMom]

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.

[KittyMom]

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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Paramedics came and took Poppo to Ryder Trauma Center at Jackson Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for the bizarre cannibalistic attack. Gruesome photos circulating on the web show injuries so profound his chances for recovery seem small.

Hospital officials knew his identity, but couldn't say anything about him. Since Saturday, they have tried without success to find a relative somewhere they can tell about what's happened to Poppo and to get information for his care.

They have found nobody. After 65 years on this earth and barely surviving on the street, Poppo is now the victim of a bizarre cannibal who has left him disfigured with deadly injuries and he seems to be alone in the world.

Until Saturday, he was a nobody. Now, he's famous. All it took was a crazed cannibal attacker who had called the streets of Miami home.

 

[sharon]

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.

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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.

[sharon]

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.

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