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Miami Face-Eating Attacker Had No Human Flesh in Stomach

ByALYSSA NEWCOMB
June 09, 2012, 3:30 PM

June 9, 2012— -- The Miami man whose vicious face-eating attack left his victim with his eyes, nose and mouth chewed off may not have been a cannibal after all.

An autopsy of Rudy Eugene's body found there was no human flesh in his stomach, just a few undigested pills, according to the Orlando Sentinel.

The pills have not been identified and it will takes weeks to complete toxicology tests on them, the newspaper reported.

Eugene, who authorities suspect may have been high on a dangerous new street drug known as "bath salts," was naked and had to be shot four times by a police officer to halt the attack.

"He's beating another man. It's a naked man beating another man," one 911 caller said. "He is going to kill that man. I promise you."

The grisly assault on Ronald Poppo, a homeless man, lasted for 18 agonizing minutes and was captured on nearby surveillance cameras.

Poppo, 65, is in critical condition after police say 75 percent of his face was devoured by Eugene.

Footage taken by security cameras at the nearby Miami Herald building shows most of the 18 gory minutes of Eugene's growling and vicious attack on Poppo, when Eugene chewed off the man's nose, mouth and eyes.

The bizarre attack was one of the first in a string of unrelated cannibalistic incidents that has been dubbed the "zombie apocalypse."

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