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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.
This uncensored surveillance video from the Miami Herald building shows the 18-minute face-eating attack on victim Ronald Poppo on the MacArthur Causeway. Police arrive at the scene, shooting attacker Rudy Eugene around minute 18.

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.

On Tuesday police identified Eugene’s victim as Ronald Poppo, a 65-year-old homeless man who has lived on Miami’s streets for more than three decades. With his nose, mouth and eyes torn off, he remained in critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital on Tuesday.

The new video, and information from police, suggest that Eugene stumbled upon Poppo by sheer happenstance.

The footage shows Eugene walking naked on the sidewalk along the Biscayne Boulevard off-ramp of the causeway at around 1:55 p.m. Saturday when he paused in a shady spot under the Metromover Omni loop line. Eugene appeared to twirl as a bicyclist zoomed by. For about two minutes, Eugene bent over a second figure in the shade, though the images are obscured by a rustling palm frond.

Eugene then rolled Poppo out onto the sunny sidewalk, stripping off his clothes while Poppo appeared to kick in resistance. Eugene later appeared to straddle Poppo and hunch over him for several minutes.

Meanwhile, two more cyclists passed by, and one motorist in a white car slowed down while descending the off-ramp. But for many motorists, the scene was obscured by a waist-high concrete safety wall along the highway.

According to Miami police, the first call of a disturbance came from a passing motorist who reported seeing Eugene stripping off his clothes and acting erratically. That call was routed to the Florida Highway Patrol — it’s unclear why — and then transferred to the Miami police. Police have not disclosed the time of the first call.

A Road Ranger called to the scene also called 911 and used a loudspeaker to call for the naked attacker to cease. As the attack dragged on, two other motorists called police, as did another cyclist, Larry Vega, who later told reporters that Eugene “just stood, his head up like that, with pieces of flesh in his mouth. And he growled.”

At about 2:11 p.m. — 16 minutes after the attack began — a Miami police patrol car briefly turned up the causeway ramp, against traffic, before turning around, the video shows.

About two minutes later, the patrol car turned against traffic again and drove up the ramp to scene, just south of the Miami Herald’s parking garage. Just a few seconds after stepping from his car to confront the attacker, Officer Rivera drew his gun, but it’s unclear when he fired on Eugene, killing the 31-year-old man. A second officer arrived about one minute later.

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.


Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/29/2822971/new-video-shows-more-grisly-detail.html#storylink=cpy

Apparently there are, in some states, "stand your ground" laws which condone the use of lethal violence in self defense rather than leaving the scene of the altercation. The thought is why should the potential victim have to run away? To me, this simply sets things up for problems. Say someone nearly hits me with their car as I'm out walking. Understandably, I get upset, I'm shaken up, I yell at the driver. They mistake me for a threat and do something rash rather than just drive away. I don't want this person to have a lethal weapon!

This, honestly, is why the idea of people carrying guns makes me feel less safe overall. Who knows how I might be miss-perceived and if the one doing the miss-perceiving has a lethal weapon... Yeah, I just don't trust people, I guess. Sure, there's always a potential for trouble from a stranger and yes, someone with a conceal and carry permit ought to have training, licensing and know-how, but...people are people and I'm wary. Even cops, whom I do trust, make mistakes, much less folks who's lives don't revolve around public safety and making the right choices under sudden high pressure.

((I'll move this post to a new thread, if you'd like.))

The one with the dog and car wasn't the one spun as racially motivated. As I said, I don't know the details of that one.

On one's own property (such as a homeowner and a burglar) I'm all for standing ground. Hell, if you're breaking the law to break and enter, you've forfeited your rights far as I'm concerned. Tis why it bugs me so much when an injured burglar or mugger sues their potential victim.
The cases that worry me are the random spot of public ground ones where it's not clear who should walk away and who should stand firm, who's right, who's wrong and who's in the clear to use force or threat of force.#

I've heard those stats before, too, and I do believe you/them. Though why then do I still fee so much less safe knowing a stranger could have a gun? Maybe it's because knowing it's a legal option puts the whole idea more in my concious mind where as when it's illegal, yet criminals still might, then I'm just not thinking of it. *muses* #

Though...are criminals more or less likely to carry a gun when then know others might be legally doing so? Or, if knowing their law-abiding victims aren't packing, are they more likely to stick to threatening with a knife?

The martial arts experience I have is self-defense and of a nature to use an attacker's energy against them, not to attack yourself. And we were encouraged to get out of the area if we could. I'm an average build female with a heart condition; I've no business standing my ground unless given no choice.

For the gun threat, it's the range of threat the gun gives and the perceived lethality. Easier to run (as someone like me should) away from a knife or fist than a gun.

I'm glad to agree that all of this is dealing with unlikely scenarios and cars are far more dangerous. End of the day/thread it's good to know that this is pretty much all hypothetical in my area.

# I think I just lack faith in human nature. Or at least in human intelligence and common sense. sweatdrop