Another bizarre incident involving a naked man biting someone’s face in Florida occurred on Tuesday night, and police had to shoot the attacker after a Taser had no effect.
Officials haven’t released the identity of the man but say that he was walking nude near Delray Beach on Tuesday when he encountered a 66-year old man–a retired police officer–and attacked him. The man was taken to the hospital with serious injuries, but the attacker didn’t stop there. Instead, he continued his rampage up the road until he came across a man and his 10-year old son, who said they were chased but unharmed. He eventually came to an 18-year old man, who was attacked and had his face bitten severely. He was able to fight off the naked man with a box cutter. When officers arrived on the scene, they say they used a Taser on the crazed man to no effect.
“He’s obviously delirious on something,” Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. “He is a huge guy. He takes a fighting stance. They’re trying to get him on the ground. He starts charging them. The Taser did not affect him.”
Authorities say they were forced to fire shots at the man, who took three bullets and was rushed to the hospital. He died from his injuries.
The incident sounds quite a bit like several that occurred in Florida in 2012, a span of time known as the “zombie apocalypse” because of the attackers’ penchant for biting. The first attack–in May of that year–happened when 31-year old Rudy Eugene stripped down on a causeway and began attacking a homeless man, biting his face viciously down to the bone until police intervened and shot him to death. The victim, Ronald Poppo, survived but had to have several reconstructive surgeries, and lost his eyes, nose, and mouth. Police thought at the time that synthetic marijuana was to blame for Eugene’s sudden violent attack–and “superhuman” strength–but an autopsy showed pills in his system.
“We don’t know right now if he’s expired from the gunshots, or if he’s expired because of obviously he’s on some type of drugs that have made him act like this,” Bradshaw said. “There’s no way to know if those are the shots that actually killed him, or if he’s died from what they called exited delirium. He’s obviously on some type of narcotics to make him act like this.”
A witness captured video of police shooting the unidentified man this week; you can view it here. Contains graphic material, obviously.
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