Jenny Ductant, his ex-wife told Local 10, “I wouldn’t say he had mental problem but he always felt like people was against him type of attitude … No one was for him, everyone was against him.” One of the neighbors reported that Eugene’s marriage had ended and his house had been foreclosed last year. Homeless people living in the area said that he frequently wandered about the area in a confused state.
Larry Vega, the eyewitness who first spotted Eugene chewing a victim’s face and flagged down a police officer said, “The guy was, like, tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, ‘Get off!’ …The guy just kept eating the other guy away, like, ripping his skin.”
When the police officer yelled at Eugene to back away the naked man looked back “with pieces of flesh in his mouth,” growled, and went back to feeding. Even after the officer shot Eugene, he continued to attack the victim’s face. The police had no option but to shoot him dead.
The shooting and what followed was captured by a surveillance video, but police are continuing to investigate what had actually happened and calling for witnesses.
Eugene’s victim, another homeless man, is still unidentified, and is in a critical condition at Jackson Memorial Hospital. The attack went on for 18 minutes before police arrived.
The police has records of previous cases like this where those suffering from drug-induced psychosis take off their clothes, display superhuman strength, and use jaws as their weapons. A similar assault occurred at the Ultra Music Festival where a naked man Evan Oberfelder attacked people after being hit by a taxi. 14 police officers had to be treated for injuries after they managed to subdue Oberfelder.
Armando Aguilar of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police told the media, “We have seen, already, three or four cases that are exactly like this where some people have admitted taking LSD and it’s no different than cocaine psychosis.”