The Zombie Man

Man, when Memorial Day weekend rolled around, us Miami-ans expected to hear stories of drunken fights and drama with obnoxious tourists.

What we did NOT expect was to hear about a cannibal on the McArthur Causeway. Oh, you didn’t hear? A MAN WAS EATING ANOTHER MAN’S FACE ON THE BRIDGE. As crazy as it sounds, there is no exaggeration here.

This is the fucked up crazy shit that starts in the beginning of a scary movie. I feel like it’s the beginning of freakin’ Resident Evil. In case you don’t know somehow, Resident Evil is a movie series based on a video game about a weird not-too-distant future where zombies are out for the brains of any survivors of some mysterious fall out.

Anyways, officials are saying the man was on the hallucinogen LSD but it was some “new form” that turns users , and I quote, “ into zombie like cannibals.” WTF?? So there is a new drug on the streets, easy enough for some homeless dude to get that makes people want to eat other people.

Some people laughed about this when they heard, but this is so serious. As a woman, shit as a person I feel the extra need to protect myself when I’m out. Everyone should. I skateboard sometimes and think “Damn, if someone attacked me all I have is this board…” but trust me if I see some bamma coming at me with the look of hunger in his crazy eyes I will turn back into 9th grade Aja the track star !

And don’t just think this type of thing happens at night- it was around 2 pm ! Broad daylight. And the fact that the man reportedly turned, smiled and growled at the police officer is maybe the scariest part. Oh also that the officer shot him and he kept on eating… that too.

Here is an excerpt from the news:

CORAL GABLES (LALATE) – Rudy Eugene is identified as the “Causeway Cannibal” aka “Miami Zombie”, the man who eat someone’s face off on the MacArthur Causeway this weekend. LSD is now being blamed for the Causeway Cannibal attack and a condition called “excited delirium”. Local news is reporting that a new version of LSD on the streets of Miami is turning people into zombie like cannibals. And police are telling news that the situation is very serious.

Rudy Eugene was found eating the face off a homeless man on the MacArthur Causeway near Miami’s South Beach. Officials tell news that Rudy Eugene ate, and digested, roughly eighty-percent of another man’s face. The victim is in critical condition. But friends of Rudy tell news that he never exhibited conditions like this in his life.

So what caused the attack? Miami police union chief Armando Aguilar tells news that he has seen several cases involving LSD in which theperson becomes a zombie-like attacker. He tells the Miami New Times that the person becomes a raging incredible Hulk. “I’m going by similarities in other cases of excited delirium I’ve researched in the last couple of days”. Eugene was so uncontrollable that police had to repeatedly shoot him to finally kill him.

The fight erupted at 2pm on North Bayshore Drive and NE 13th Street. Javier Ortiz, spokesman for Miami police’s Fraternal Order of Police, initially told news that the two men were running across the MacArthur Causeway, unclothed. But now, more details about those final moments have been released.

Eugene had lost his home in 2011 to foreclosure. In recent days, Eugene was allegedly seen hanging out with homeless persons. On Sunday, witness Larry Vega saw the drama unfold between Eugene and a homeless man. Vega tells WSVN that “The guy was, like, tearing him topieces with his mouth, so I told him, ‘Get off!’” Eugene heard Vega’s shouts. Eugene reportedly stopped eating, turned, and looked at Vega, growled and smiled “with pieces of flesh in his mouth”.

Aguilar tells news what police found when they responded to the scene. “He was actually swallowing pieces of the man’s face.” Aguilar tells NBC Miami that Eugene had digested 75-80% of the man’s face. Doctors tell local news that Eugene’s condition suggests that he was on a new version of LSD. Dr Paul Adams tells CBS Miami that LSD has contributed to nearly a half dozen similar criminal cases around South Beach this spring.

According to NBC Miami:

Parts of the confrontation were caught by The Miami Herald’s surveillance camera, which overlooks the crime scene. A witness said he couldn’t believe what he was seeing during the Saturday attack.

“He bite him here, here,” said the witness who identified himself as Eric. He grabbed at his own cheek and neck to demonstrate.

The veteran Miami Police officer who responded told his superiors that he pointed a gun at the attacker, who was naked, and asked him to stop.

“He growled at him like a wild animal and kept eating at the man’s face,” Aguilar said.

City of Miami Police say the officer had no choice but to shoot the man. His wild behavior was symptomatic of excited delirium, Aguilar said. The disorder is usually drug-related and can incite violence, unexpected strength and even hyperthermia.

“Inside their body their organs are burning up alive. They’ve reached temperature where their actually burning up, and it actually makes them take off their clothes,” Aguilar said.

The website exciteddelirium.org has uploaded video examples of people experts believe to be suffering from the disorder.

There have been four recent cases in Miami-Dade County including one with 21-year-old George Salgado, Aguilar said. In April, police said they had to use a stun gun on Salgado because of his aggressive behavior. A 911 caller describes his encounter with Salgado to the operator.

“There’s a naked man, and he’s aggressive. He tore my clothes and tried to bite my neck,” the caller said in Spanish. A medical report showed Salgado had taken three stamps of LSD.

But in Saturday’s case, police believe the officer saved the man’s life by shooting the attacker before he could harm him even further.

“There’s no doubt in my mind. The man would be dead right now,” Aguilar said.

Police urged any residents that witnessed the incident to contact them at 305-471-TIPS.

Jackson Memorial Hospital‘s emergency room has seen an increase of people suffering from psychosis caused by a variety of drugs.

“Cocaine and new LSDs, they cause delirium, which (means) you don’t make sense when you take them,” said Paul Adams, an ER doctor at Jackson Memorial Hospital. “And when you don’t make sense and you don’t control your emotions, you don’t control your actions, you find yourself in circumstances that you just don’t want to be in.”

Dr. Adams said he has seen the effects of a designer drug nicknamed “bath salts” – which also causes body temperatures to spike – during and after the recent Ultra Music Festival.

“People don’t drink water while they’re taking it so they become dehydrated. So you mix dehydration with elevated temperature with loss of inhibitions, and you have a life-threatening combination. Mix for disaster,” Adams said.

Bath salts were banned in Florida in 2011, but new formulations have become dangerously popular.

“We’ve had several deaths. Earlier last year we probably saw our first deaths from bath salts, where people (were) running onto MacArthur Causeway, under MacArthur Causeway, being chased by the police and then all of the sudden just collapsing,” Adams said.

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