'Cannibal' Victim Speaks: 'He Chewed Up My Face'

Ronald Poppo describes Rudy Eugene's attack
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 9, 2012 7:20 AM CDT

In a police interview from last month obtained by CBS Miami, Ronald Poppo gives a chilling—but surprisingly calm—account of Rudy Eugene's cannibalistic attack on him on a Florida causeway. "He just ripped me to ribbons," Poppo says. "He chewed up my face. He plucked out my eyes." Poppo, who is now blind, says he thought Eugene was "a good guy" at first. But Eugene was apparently upset because he "wasn't scoring" on Miami Beach, and "went and turned berserk," Poppo says. "I guess he took it out on me or something." Poppo denies saying anything "mean or nasty" to provoke the attack, and says he had never met Eugene before. (A previous report claimed otherwise.)

Eugene was also upset because he thought Poppo stole his Bible, but Poppo denies ever even seeing it. As he attacked Poppo, Eugene was saying, "You, me, buddy, and nobody else here. I'm gonna—gonna kill you," Poppo recalls. "He just started to scream. And he was talking kind of funny talk," like saying "that I was gonna die. And he was gonna die," Poppo continues. "He must have been souped up on something." Then, "he mashed my face into the sidewalk. My face is all bent and mashed up. My eyes, my eyes got plucked out. He was strangling me in wrestling holds at the same time he was plucking my eyes out." Click for the full interview. (More Ronald Poppo stories.)

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