Zombie attack! Flesh-eating blitz strikes nation's crime headlines

[Moazam Khan]

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Homo homini lupus est, the saying goes: man is a wolf to man. But that's supposed to be a metaphor.

The fact that attacks with teeth are less frequently fatal than assaults with a deadly weapon might be some consolation – but the nation's media are now obsessing over this spate of so-called "zombie" attacks.

The latest incident occurred in Florida on Wednesday night, when police used Tasers to subdue a naked man accused of taking a bite out of another man's arm.

The suspect, Charles Baker, 26, didn't have long to chew on his prey before cops came running. A Manatee County sheriff's office report said the victim, Jeffery Blake, 48, lost no flesh beyond a chunk from his left biceps.

When police arrived Baker faced them, screamed and made as if to attack, the report said.

One officer shot the suspect with a Taser, but he pulled the probes out. Police were able to subdue Baker after another officer shot him, once again with a Taser.

A similar case in late May in Miami ended fatally when a naked assailant, Rudy Eugene, defied police orders to stop chewing at the face of his victim, Ronald Poppo. Police shot Eugene dead. Poppo lost 50% of his face and is still in the hospital.

Florida hardly has a monopoly on criminal cannibalism in America these days. Maryland university student Alexander Kinyua was indicted last week on charges of murdering a 37-year-old man and eating his heart and part of his brain. Kinyua had a history of disturbing internet writings and had been accused in a separate assault at his school, Morgan State University, earlier in the month.

In Montreal, suspect Luka Magnotta is accused in the stabbing and dismemberment death last month of Chinese student Jun Lin. Magnotta allegedly made a video of the attack showing himself eating Lin's flesh.

In a significantly less gruesome incident earlier this month in Naples, Florida, Giovani Martinez was arrested on suspicion of drunken driving and transported to a hospital, where he bit a nurse on the arm. Then he threatened to "eat the staff's faces like the guy in Miami", according to a police report.

The suspect in the most recent attack, Charles Baker, was enraged when Jeffery Blake, 48, answered the door at Baker's girlfriend's home, police said.
In what police described as an intoxicated fit, Baker tore off his clothes, threw furniture and attacked Blake with his teeth, tearing flesh from his biceps.
Baker was taken to the hospital and treated before being taken to jail. The victim's condition was unknown.

Baker went to the home to visit his children living there, police said. Blake also lived at the residence.
Zombie attack! Flesh-eating blitz strikes nation's crime headlines | World news | guardian.co.uk

[Aeronaut]

Keep watching twilight

[eowyn]

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