The story of the Miami cannibal--32-year old Rudy Eugene–went nationwide very quickly last month after news broke that a man had eaten 75% of a homeless person’s face in a fit of naked rage. Since then, more alarming stories have cropped up, putting the entire country on edge and sending the interwebs into a flurry of rumors regarding a popular, somewhat legal synthetic stimulant called “bath salts”.
Now, a new story has come out of Palmetto, Florida, sending residents into a panic and a whole new set of rumors flying. 26-year old Charles Baker, under the influence of an unknown substance, went into a rage on Wednesday night and bit a chunk from another man’s arm during an altercation. Baker had gone to visit his children at their mother’s home. According to witnesses, he banged on the door, then barged in and proceeded to take his clothes off. He stormed around in a rage until Jeffery Blake, who lives at the home, tried to stop him, at which point Baker bit a chunk of flesh out of his arm. When police arrived, they used a taser on Baker to no effect. Baker actually pulled the taser prongs out of his skin and continued to rage. This happened two more times, until officers were finally able to subdue him enough to put handcuffs on him.
If you are familiar with Rudy Eugene’s story–and I’d wager that you are–you’ll recognize a lot of the above paragraph as familiar. Eugene also got naked before attacking his victim and chewed on the man’s face, although autopsy reports now show he didn’t actually ingest any of the flesh. And he also was extremely difficult to take down, charging at police officers without fear and taking several shots from them before being fatally wounded.
Toxicology reports take a while to be processed, so we’re still waiting to hear whether or not Eugene was high on “bath salts” as rumored. No word yet on what substance Baker was high on, but if it’s determined that the drug caused his rage, it could go a long way to help certain political groups in getting it banned.