Rudy Eugene's mother: Son was no "zombie", should have been tased, not shot

[The Northerner]

(CBS) MIAMI, Fla. - The mother of Rudy Eugene, who attacked a homeless man in Miami and chewed his face before being shot and killed by a police officer, says her son was "a nice kid" who could have been subdued with a Taser rather than deadly gunfire, CBS Miami reports.

The mother, who asked CBS Miami not to reveal her name, said that wasn't her son who she saw on TV - the son who also had two baby brothers, and that "they used to go to church all the time together."

"He was a good kid," she said. "He gave me a nice card on Mother's Day. Everyone says he was a zombie. He was no zombie. That was my son."

On Saturday afternoon, the 31-year-old Eugene was killed by a police officer after a reported 18-minute attack on a homeless man, who police identified as 65-year-old Ronald Poppo. Video of the incident shows Eugene coming across Poppo on a sidewalk along Miami's MacArthur Causeway, stripping clothes off him and eventually chewing on his face.

Poppo was in critical condition at a Miami hospital. Police said he lost 75 percent of his face in the attack.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57444722-504083/rudy-eugenes-mother-son-was-no-zombie-should-have-been-tased-not-shot/

[hlthe2b]

1. I thought they did try to tase him...

heavens, I'm very antsy about the use of deadly force, but from what is known at this point, I'd have a very hard time arguing that it was not necessary...

I feel badly for the mother though. I'm sure this is nearly impossible to take in about someone you loved.

[Mosby]

12. did the guy have a weapon?

Why didn't the police just pull him off the victim and use restraints?

[hlthe2b]

14. He was in some kind of uncontrollable violent animal-like rage, eating the guy...

That would have been akin to expecting them to pull off an adult male lion from its prey. Can you imagine trying to do that?

It appears he was in some kind of horrific psychotic break--whether from drugs or from mental illness.

[HiPointDem]

34. i doubt that story.

[hlthe2b]

36. There is surveillance video... n/t

[HiPointDem]

38. i saw the video. i didn't see anything that couldn't be controlled by several big policemen. or a

shot in the leg or arm.

[hlthe2b]

40. There is over 18 minutes of surveillance video that has not been released publicly

[magical thyme]

16. because those drugs lead to phenomenal strength

Two cops wasn't going to stop him. One bullet didn't stop him; it took 4.

Was the first on arrival supposed to stand around waiting for backup while the victim had the rest of his face eaten off?

How much agony was that poor man supposed to suffer, not to mention lose that now he has no eyes, nose or I don't know what else, before he was helped?

[Mosby]

17. and yet the attack lasted 18 minutes

The police didn't have time to get 3-4 officers to the scene to restrain the guy?

IMHO I think the real issue is that the police put their safety before the publics, this is yet another example of that.

[magical thyme]

18. maybe they didn't know what was going on when the first calls came in

The attack lasted 18 minutes, per the security video that captured it. But the witnesses who called the police were not there from the get-go.

It took just a couple minutes for the first cop to arrive from when the first calls came in. He didn't stand around waiting for other cops to arrive. Once he assessed the situation and realized what was going on -- the the attacker wasn't listening to him -- he did what he had to do.

I'm not blaming the cops for being slow to get there or for shooting the drugged out guy.

[okieinpain]

23. don't blame them. i see no reason

for them to be at risk.

[HiPointDem]

35. +1. easier to shoot.

[Life Long Dem]

37. But it's not the cops fault he was chewing off his face

\

[sofa king]

30. Sure looks like his teeth count.

[snooper2]

43. You didn't grow up on a farm did you?

[dmallind]

2. Tase him? Hell shooting him just once didn't stop him

He kept right on chewing until being shot again multiple times.

[aikoaiko]

3. "He was a good kid,"

A mother's love can be undying.

[Marr]

25. He may have been a wonderful kid.

But he became one seriously messed up man.

[XemaSab]

4. Wouldn't tasing him

have also zapped the guy he was attacking?

Sorry, but if someone was chewing my face off, I wouldn't want the cops to have a 20 minute breakout session on how to treat my attacker, I would want them to plug the guy.

[cthulu2016]

5. OMG... I read that as "should have been tasted, not shot"

[Quixote1818]

44. Me too.

[Canuckistanian]

6. To be fair

He WAS under the influence of a drug that some say is like "cocaine and amphetamines X 10"

Former addicts (the ones who survived this drug) say they had violent thoughts all the time while taking bath salts.

It doesn't matter WHAT kind of person you started out as.

[hlthe2b]

15. That's been reported, but to my knowledge never confirmed. (bath salts theory)

[Aerows]

7. He was blitzed on drugs

and one shot wasn't enough. He ate 75% of the guys face off, and continued munching away until he was shot a few times. Tazing would most likely have done nothing and resulted in even more destruction.

[RebelOne]

8. In this case, I can condone the cops shooting him. n/t

[Aerows]

9. Sometimes it is a necessary evil

and in this case, I agree completely.

[Gold Metal Flake]

10. No, not zombie. Reaver.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reaver_%28Firefly%29

[aikoaiko]

22. Fortunately there is a cure for Reavers.

[IMG][/IMG]

[4th law of robotics]

11. Police should be on the look out for all people described as "nice kids" by their mothers

they seem to be responsible for 99.9999% of all crimes ever committed.

/particularly violent ones.

[dmallind]

26. Even worse are the "quiet guys who kept to himself"

That's how every neighbor I've ever seen asked about it described the serial killer next door.

Lock up good kids and quiet introverts now!

[magical thyme]

13. sorry mom, but no deal

Defense of the innocent under attack wins on this one.

Your son didn't "just chew on his face." I read that he *ate* his *eyes* and *nose* and another part.

Ate. them. off. That poor man had enough suffering in his life. He never should have been subjected to such torture.

You do what you have to when confronted with the horrific.

I'm sorry for your loss of your son, but the fact is you lost him some time ago.

[jpbollma]

21. Yeah this guy should have been blown away..

I will feel sorry for the homeless man if he actually survives. He will be horribly disfigured.

[msanthrope]

33. There's a pic on the web. Don't google it. I mean it. nt

[ManyShadesOf]

19. he ate the man's eyes

[tallahasseedem]

20. I believe that the officer...

did the right thing in this situation. This woman is going to have to come to terms with what her son did to that man.

[joeybee12]

24. Well, if he had been pregnant, I'm sure the cops would have tased him...nt

[riverwalker]

27. what the heck is in those "bath salts"?

why would they want to take something that makes you so agitated and violent? I just don't understand.

[JVS]

28. Not a nice kid, probably could have been subdued by taser.

[msanthrope]

32. You know, I thought that, until I saw the pic of the victim.

First....DO NOT google for that picture. Trust me.

When I did see that picture, I've got to tell you that they simply do not train any officer in this country on how to handle that. But if I'd seen a dude doing that to another dude, I would be reaching for lethal force before that dude got tired of his snack and looked at me or anyone else....

I would not have trusted a taser to get the job done.

[XanaDUer]

41. I googled it

I'm a former medical librarian used to looking at pretty disturbing pix, and that one was bad. Yeah, they needed to shoot this guy. This looks worse than the lady whose face was eaten off by a chimp.

[deaniac21]

29. He should have been tasted.

[Mojo Electro]

31. "bath salts" and the "miami zombie"

Greetings from Florida. Good to back on DU!

There has been a lot of really sub-par reporting on this by our local media, as well as some pretty uninformed statements by the local PD, particularly as it relates to the "bath salts" issue...

There have been no tox screen results, so we really have no idea what this guy was on, if anything... though it would not surprise me at all of one of this class of drugs turned out to be front and center here.

The drug known as "bath salts" these days is typically the very nasty amphetamine MDPV. (methelenedioxyparavalerone) The stuff is highly addictive, with a uncanny ability to cause compulsion to re-dose even after there isn't much euphoria and there are a lot of negative side effects... and after staying up for a few days on it, it can cause extreme paranoid delusions, and pretty much drive a person completely bat-shit....(and the stripping naked is a classic sign of an amphetamine train-wreck of some sort)... the second most likely compound would be 4MMC (4-methyl-methcathinone).. also nasty stuff, but less so. It is not a "new form of LSD" as reported by the spokesperson for the city.

With regard to the opinion voiced by his mom... I don't fault a mother at all for saying that when it is her own son. My heart goes out to her. But I disagree, and I think the taser would have shocked the victim as well, since he was sinking his teeth into the guy.

Seeing the horrific injuries already inflicted on this poor man (have you seen the pictures?) the cop did the right thing by putting this guy down.

[flamingdem]

39. Um, how can we AVOID people on this drug? Is this in every big city now?

Yikes! Maybe it's time for a public information campaign with the "Causeway Cannibal" as an example of what could happen.

>>amphetamine MDPV. (methelenedioxyparavalerone)

[Mojo Electro]

42. Truth be told,

the odds of coming across someone someone on this stuff is not all that high, you run more risk of coming across a meth head or getting hit by a drunk driver... and there has been no tox screen on Eugene, so we are not even sure what (if anything) he was on.