Ronald Poppo remembers Rudy Eugene, the crazed “Miami cannibal,” telling him they were both going to die.
In a police interview obtained by WFOR-TV, Poppo said his attacker “was talking kind of funny talk for a while.”
The chilling “funny talk” was “that I was gonna die. And he was gonna die,” he recalled. “He must have been souped up on something.”
But a toxicology test on 31-year-old Eugene – who was fatally shot by cops as he gnawed at Poppo’s face – only revealed traces of marijuana, making the May 26 attack even more of a mystery.
As Poppo remembers it, “He just ripped me to ribbons. He chewed up my face. He plucked out my eyes. Basically that’s all there is to say about it.”
The 65-year-old homeless man was left blind after a naked Eugene savaged him on the MacArthur Causeway in Miami. He is still recovering after multiple surgeries.
Eugene gave no reason, Poppo said. “He just started to scream.”
In another part of the interview, he said Eugene was looking to “score” an unspecified drug at the nearby Miami Beach and failed.
“He apparently didn’t have a good day at the beach … And I guess he took it out on me or something. I don’t know.”
Exactly what set Eugene off remains unknown. He was killed when police arrived at the scene, opening fire when he would not stop assaulting Poppo.
Revolted witnesses claimed Eugene swallowed several of the pieces of flesh from Poppo’s face, but none were found in his stomach during the autopsy.
Poppo credits the cops with saving his life.
“If they didn’t get there in a nick of time, I would’ve definitely been in worse shape,” he said. “Possibly I’d be DOA.”
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