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Are bath salts back? Police shot a 6-foot-3, 250-pound naked man after he bit an 18-year-old in the face and attacked others in Palm Beach, Florida yesterday. He later died at a hospital. It all started when the man attacked a 66-year-old retired New York City cop, unprovoked. He then moved on to another man and his 10-year-old son. Then he attacked the 18-year-old man. And yes, the police suspect the attacker was on drugs.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says the man was "obviously on some kind of narcotics to act like this." But of course we won't know for certain until an autopsy is done. He did pose a terrifying threat to the community, going by Bradshaw's description.
The 18-year-old thought he was trying to eat his face off. The people that he assaulted, starting with the retired NYPD guy, the people that he chased and then the 18-year-old, said this guy had like super human strength. But he's a big guy to start with. He's not fat, he looks like an NFL linebacker. And he basically was terrorizing people all up and down this street.
The 10-year-old boy was injured trying to scramble under a gate to get away. The 18-year-old tried to defend himself with a box cutter. Police used a stun gun on the attacker, but it was like zapping a brick wall. A moving brick wall with teeth. Finally police shot the man once in the torso and twice in the lower body, and the attack stopped.
Until we hear more about the attacker, we can only speculate, but the story does sound a lot like the attacks caused by the drug "bath salts" starting a couple years ago. The attackers were naked and would bite people in the face. Bath salts induce a kind of psychosis, but they also apparently raise your body temperature, hence the nudity. Oof, what an unholy combination.
No word yet on how the victims are doing -- two are in the hospital, the boy and the ex-cop. I can only imagine the horror of seeing a huge naked man grabbing someone and biting them. Man, I hope this is just an isolated incident and we're not going to see another epidemic.
What would you do if you witnessed an attack like this?
Image via Lisa Jacobs/Flickr
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