{"id":3935,"date":"2012-05-29T22:49:24","date_gmt":"2012-05-30T05:49:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/?p=3935"},"modified":"2012-05-29T22:49:24","modified_gmt":"2012-05-30T05:49:24","slug":"story-of-the-week-miami-face-eating-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/story-of-the-week-miami-face-eating-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Story of the week; Miami Face-Eating Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

Okay so I\u2019m sure by now you\u2019ve heard it, quite possibly from my Facebook page where I\u2019ve been making continuous updates since an hour after it was first reported to ensure everyone was up to speed on this horrific situation in Miami.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t go another day without addressing this a bit more formally here because people are beginning to ask us what\u2019s wrong with us and why are we ignoring this massive development with such obvious implications toward a zombie outbreak event.<\/p>\n

Well, the reason I wanted to wait was because I wanted to make sure I had as much information as possible before I went and threw this out there like it was fact and also to give myself an opportunity to think about it in detail to really evaluate what this could mean for us in the long run.<\/p>\n

In case you hid under a rock this weekend, here\u2019s the story;<\/p>\n

A naked man we now know to be 31 year old Rudy Eugene, was spotted on top of another man, now identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo, who was ALSO naked.\u00a0 Eugene was on top of Poppo and was viciously biting away at his face, tearing pieces of it off in shreds.<\/p>\n

A cyclist by the name of Larry Vega saw the attack and yelled at the man to stop.\u00a0 He stayed at a distance and called for police.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe guy was, like, tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, `Get off!\u2019\u201d Vega stated as he related his story to a Miami television station. \u201cThe guy just kept eating the other guy away, like, ripping his skin\u2026 It was just a blob of blood,\u201d he said. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t really see, it was just blood all over the place.\u201d\u00a0 He was also quoted to say he felt he had been traumatized, that these images would never leave him as long as he lived and he wanted nothing more than to get past it and stop talking about it.<\/p>\n

When the police arrived, they yelled at the attacker to back off.\u00a0 Rudy Eugene looked up at them, growled and went back to eating Poppo.<\/p>\n

The police then shot 1 round.\u00a0 This had NO effect on the attacker.\u00a0 The police shot 4 more rounds and finally, the man fell dead leaving the victim a bloody mass, writing in pain on the ground.<\/p>\n

All of this took place out in the open, Saturday early afternoon in Miami on a pedestrian path right off of a main freeway.\u00a0 Surveillance video shows much of the attack and how it was clearly out in view of the public in this very populated area when many people were out and about for an event that was taking place nearby.<\/p>\n

Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, stated it was among the \u201cbloodiest and goriest scenes I\u2019ve ever been to\u2026. It was not only grotesque, it was just very sad, the amount of blood. It was very sad to see what happened to this gentleman that had his face eaten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fraternal Order of Police President Armando Augilar stated he suspected that the attacker was under the influence of \u201cbath salts.\u201d<\/p>\n

The important thing to note here, is he also stated four other drug use instances in Miami-Dade bear resemblances to Saturday\u2019s attack.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt causes them to go completely insane and become very violent\u201d and apparently taking off their clothes is a tell-tale sign, Augilar told the CNN affiliate on scene.<\/p>\n

The victim was rushed to the hospital, fighting for his life without ears, \u00a0eyes or a nose.\u00a0 His face was unrecognizable and described as \u201ca blob of blood\u201d and \u201cnothing but his goatee was left\u201d.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s difficult to imagine the the fear and the pain experienced in this attack.\u00a0 We see it in horror movies, but this wasn\u2019t a movie, it was a random dude on the side of the road.\u00a0 A real man who suffered a devastating crime and is now near death; not an Eli Roth masterpiece designed to make you cringe and laugh.<\/p>\n

Stop and think about this for just one second; to lose both eyes, ears and all recognizable features in the matter of a few minutes in one of the most painful ways possible, to know you will be disabled for life because another human being ATE you.<\/p>\n

Vega, the cyclist who called the police said the closest thing he\u2019s ever seen to something like this was watching \u201cThe Walking Dead\u201d and expressed that it was traumatizing seeing something so gruesome in real life.<\/p>\n

Yes, on the surface this is stuff of horror movies and zombie comics.\u00a0 Yes, this has the geek world on edge; wondering if it\u2019s finally time to pack up the bug-out bag, load up the supplies and head out to the safe house.<\/p>\n

Before we get all excited and gleefully stock up on water and canned goods, let\u2019s just talk about this for a minute, shall we? \u00a0Pull away from the \u201czombie\u201d implications here to recognize that this is a really sad, terrible event that has happened and I hope that as horror lovers world-wide giggle to themselves about the zombie in Miami, they stop a moment to realize a man literally had 80% of his face removed, his eyes, ears and nose eaten off and will be disabled for life because of a choice to participate in the use of a recreational drug.<\/p>\n

This killer was not a \u201czombie,\u201d this was a 31 year old guy who was described by his uncle Ives Eugene, as a \u201cnice and hard-working\u201d man who washed cars at a local dealership.<\/p>\n

The likely cause at this point is a new drug which is gaining popularity in the US and Europe, inconspicuously called \u201cbath salt\u201d and is currently completely legal.\u00a0 The official statements from medical personnel who have come across this drug in the past, report that although this is far from the desired effect, this is a typical reaction to the drug, not an exception.<\/p>\n

In January of 2011, poison control reported that they had to deal with 248 \u201cbath salt\u201d related calls around the country.\u00a0 The number in 2010 was less than half this number.\u00a0 The Director of Louisiana Poison Center, Mark Ryan said, quoted from a\u00a0Business Week article<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you take the very worst of\u2026LSD and Ecstasy with their hallucinogenic-delusional type properties, [the worst of] PCP with extreme agitation\u2026and combativeness, as well as the [worst] stimulant properties of cocaine and meth\u2026this is what you get. \u00a0It\u2019s ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Methylenedioxypyrovalerone, as it\u2019s officially called, is considered a synthetic, designer drug gaining popularity because it is currently legal, as it\u2019s classified under the same blanket as synthetic marijuana and can be purchased easily under many names such as \u201cwhite dove\u201d, \u201cVanilla Sky\u201d and \u201cIvory Wave.\u201d\u00a0 The intended and desired effects are euphoria, a sense of peaceful calm and happiness, increase in energy and sexual arousal. Unfortunately while these desired results can be the hand a user is dealt, the other side of this beautiful experience is increased agitation and anxiety, uncontrollable rage and violent tendencies, paranoia of many varieties, increased strength and delusion.<\/p>\n

So basically, this drug is legal, deadly and dangerous not only to those who take it but also to those who are anywhere near someone who is, because they might just turn into a Reaver.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right folks; we\u2019re talking Reavers here, not zombies.<\/p>\n

A zombie, even the 28 Days Later, rage virus zombie, passes on it\u2019s sickness via a bite or some other fluid exchange and is, in most mythos, dead.\u00a0 A Reaver as seen in Firefly, is the result of a drug-induced psychosis that causes blinding rage and aggression, cannibalism and extreme violent and deviant behavior. \u00a0The only way to be safe from them is to stay as far from them as possible.\u00a0 There is no fighting a Reaver, you only stay away and run as fast as possible.<\/p>\n

If this drug catches on, which I am guessing it will, it won\u2019t be walkers that we can casually run and hide from or a contagious rage virus that we can plausibly control with decontamination. \u00a0There will be no chance at the guilt-free \u201cdouble tap to the head\u201d of an already dead and reanimated body and no farm house, church or door in the country will be able to keep you safe because all it will take is one hopeful soul trying to escape reality for a while.<\/p>\n

The reality here is this drug-related death needs to be put back into the context of its story and not scoffed at or compared to science fiction because its reality should not be taken lightly.<\/p>\n

We need to do what we can to educate people about this drug, its dangers and its deadly part played out in this and other stories that didn\u2019t make it into the media, before it continues. \u00a0Otherwise, it will only next time it could be a 12 year old attacking her grandmother or a mother who ate her babies or some idiot who gives it to a fighting dog hoping it will win.\u00a0 The reality is far more horrifying than any possible fiction and we would do well to remember that as we talk about this.<\/p>\n

The danger is very real and it won\u2019t come at us in a half-decomposed, stumbling, white-eyed, soulless monster.\u00a0 It will come in the form of those you know and love, far from dead but too far from us to ever return.\u00a0 Welcome to the reality of our apocalypse, people. \u00a0It won\u2019t be fun.<\/p>\n

\"<br<\/p>\n

Rudy Eugene, 31, left, Ronald Poppo, 65, right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Okay so I\u2019m sure by now you\u2019ve heard it, quite possibly from my Facebook page where I\u2019ve been making continuous updates since an hour after it was first reported to ensure everyone was up to speed on this horrific situation in Miami. I can\u2019t go another day without addressing this a bit more formally here […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[9,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3935","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lessons-from-the-mother-ship","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1opIU-11t","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4011,"url":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/first-official-photo-from-iron-man-3-news-dark-horizons\/","url_meta":{"origin":3935,"position":0},"title":"First Official Photo From “Iron Man 3” | News | Dark Horizons","author":"AJ","date":"June 4, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Marvel Studios has begun production on Shane Black's \"Iron Man 3\" in Wilmington, North Carolina and to go with it they've also delivered the first official still from the project. The press release also confirms location shooting in Raleigh & Durham in North Carolina, Miami and China ahead of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkhorizons.com\/assets\/0018\/2008\/im3_small.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkhorizons.com\/assets\/0018\/2008\/im3_small.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.darkhorizons.com\/assets\/0018\/2008\/im3_small.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1740,"url":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/dexter-scores-colin-hanks-new-promo\/","url_meta":{"origin":3935,"position":1},"title":"“Dexter” Scores Colin Hanks, New Promo","author":"AJ","date":"May 11, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"From Dark Horizons Colin Hanks has landed a recurring role on the sixth season of Showtime's \"Dexter\" reports\u00a0TV Line. Hanks will play Travis, described as a \"highly intelligent young expert on ancient artifacts who gets linked to a series of grisly murders in Miami.\" Julia Stiles, Johnny Lee Miller, Peter\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5659,"url":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/deadpool-for-president\/","url_meta":{"origin":3935,"position":2},"title":"Deadpool For President","author":"Forbidden Panel","date":"November 6, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Happy US Election day! Deadpool asked... 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TV producer, Jerry Bruckheimer, is taking on a DC Entertainment property for a high-profile drama project that has landed a pilot production commitment at Fox. Global Frequency is based on the graphic novel created by Warren Ellis, from DC Entertainment\u2019s Vertigo imprint. The adaptation will be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"globalfrequency","src":"https:\/\/pmcdeadline2.files.wordpress.com\/2014\/11\/globalfrequency.png?w=350&h=200&crop=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2707,"url":"https:\/\/forbiddenpanel.com\/PanelCast\/this-week-in-comics-9142011\/","url_meta":{"origin":3935,"position":4},"title":"This Week in Comics – 9\/14\/2011","author":"Martin Bright","date":"September 17, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"DC Comics' new titles continue to dominate the sales this week, but that does not mean other great books were absent from shelves. 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