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Victim Of Miami "Zombie" Attack Was Stuyvesant Grad
By
Garth Johnston
Published May 30, 2012
Modified May 30, 2012
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Miami-Dade Police Dept.
By
Garth Johnston
Published May 30, 2012
Modified May 30, 2012
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Zombies really do like the brains, it seems? As if the recent face-eating attack in Miami weren't disturbing enough, now it has a New York connection. Turns out that attacker Rudy Eugene's victim, 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, was a graduate of the top tier New York public school Stuyvesant.
Details about the incident are still coming (an uncensored surveillance video showing the 18-minute-long face-eating as well as Eugene being shot by the police is now online if that is your thing) and Poppo—who lost 80 percent of his face in the attack—is still in critical condition.
Though Poppo was "in the Latin Club and worked in the guidance office at Stuyvesant" it appears he's had a hard life since, having been shot at least once and arrested two dozen times. He had been homeless for almost four decades. An already hard life got much harder, however, when 31-year-old Rudy Eugene found him sleeping not far from the Miami Herald building on Saturday afternoon.
A Miami Herald video showed Eugene on the Miami end of the MacArthur Causeway shortly before 2 p.m. Saturday, naked and in an apparent drug-fueled rage. He straddled Poppo, punched him, tore off his clothes and gnawed at his face as at least four cyclists rode by and the newspaper’s surveillance camera rolled.
The carnage ended at 2:13 p.m., when Miami Police officer Jose Rivera ordered Eugene to stop, and then shot him at least five times.
Eugene’s friends were stunned to learn of his involvement in the bizarre case. They described him as funny and friendly, with a particularly radiant smile. He was normal, and did not suffer from any mental illnesses, they said.
One witness said that Eugene seemed like a "zombie," and was throwing food to the side while chewing on his victim's face.
So what caused the so-called "Causeway Cannibal" to go so wild that he was, according to the president of Miami's Fraternal Order of Police, "actually swallowing pieces of the man's face?" That's going to have to wait for toxicology reports. Though there is speculation he was high or on a bad trip that caused his body to overheat, "police said no tangible evidence to explain it had emerged."
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