Odd, strange, or bizarre news stories from Florida

New details in attacker accused of chewing off man's face

MIAMI (WSVN) -- Disturbing new details and surveillance video have been released in the fatal police-involved shooting off a causeway that involved naked men and cannibalism.

While Larry Vega rode his bicycle on MacArthur Causeway's pedestrian walkway on Saturday afternoon, he witnessed something that can only be described as savage: a naked man was chewing off the face of another naked man. "And the guy was like tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, 'Get off!'" he said. "You know, it's like the guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin."

Upon witnessing what he describes as a scene out of a horror movie, Vega managed to flag down a Miami Police officer. "Police officer came over, told him several times to get off, and a police officer climbed over the divider and got in front of him and said, 'Get off!' And told him several times, and the guy just stood his head up like that with a piece of flesh in his mouth and growled," said Vega.

When the attack continued, Vega says the officer fired but the man continued to chew flesh off the victim. The officer fired several more times, eventually killing the attacker, who, according to published reports, has been identified as 31-year-old Rudy Eugene.

A "Miami Herald" surveillance camera caught the aftermath as the two men, who, police said, appeared to be homeless, laid side by side on the ground. "It was just a blob of blood," said Vega. "You couldn't really see, it was just blood all over the place."

Rescue crews rushed the victim to Jackson Memorial Hospital with 75 percent of his face missing, including an eye, his ears and lips.

Police said the attacker may have likely been overdosing on a new potent form of LSD. "What's happening is whenever we see that a person has taken all of his clothes off and has become violent, it's indicative of this excited delirium that's caused by overdose of drugs," said Armando Aguilar of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police. "What's happening is, inside their body their organs are burning up alive."

Doctors at Jackson Memorial say that mixing illegal drugs can have horrific results. "If you mix it with things: cocaine and new LSDs, they cause delirium, which is, you don't make sense when you take them," said Dr. Paul Adams of Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Vega said, he cannot shake the image he expected to see on the big screen and never on the streets of Miami. "Pretty gruesome, that's for sure. One of the most gruesome things I have ever seen in my life in person," he said. "You know, you see these things in the movies but when you see it in person, it's pretty traumatic."

The victim remains in critical condition. Sources tell 7News the injuries the victim sustained are some of the worst injuries they have ever seen.