Miami: A naked man who savagely bit the face and eyes of another man during an attack in Miami over the weekend has been identified.
Police sources told WPLG-TV that the accused was 31-year-old Rudy Eugene.
According to his former wife, Eugene had a history of violence.
The ex-wife, who was not named, said the pair had a short-lived marriage that lasted a year and a half.
“I wouldn’t say he had [a] mental problem but he always felt like people was against him … No one was for him, everyone was against him,” she said.
She added that she left the marriage because Eugene had been violent, and she had not been in contact with him for the past three years. They filed for divorce in 2007.
Eugene was shot dead Saturday afternoon by police who arrived at the scene on the off-ramp of the MacArthur Causeway where he was seen taking bites out of another man’s face.
As an officer drew his gun and called for an end to the attack, he “just stood … with pieces of flesh in his mouth and he growled,” eyewitness Larry Vega told WSVN-TV.
According to Vega, a cop fired one shot at Eugene, but he continued chewing, The Miami Herald reported. The officer fired again and hit Eugene several more times before he was killed.
It remains unclear why the attacker pounced on his victim, who police theorized might have been homeless and laying down when the assault began.
Police believe Eugene had likely overdosed on a new potent form of LSD, WSVN-TV reported.
“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 an 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.”
The victim remained in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Seventy-five to 80 percent of his face was reportedly missing.
“We’re hoping that he pulls through, for his well-being, but also so he can tell us what happened,” Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami police union, said according to the Herald, adding, “Only he knows.”
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