Authorities in South Florida say deputies shot a naked man after he attacked a retired police officer and bit another man on the face in Delray Beach.
Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says the man died after the Tuesday night attack. He says it wasn't immediately clear whether he died from gunshot wounds or from a medical condition.
The man was walking on Military Trail when he attacked a retired New York City police officer. The 6-foot-3, 250-pound man then began chasing a man and a 10-year-old boy.
At some point he started fighting an 18-year-old, who defended himself with a box cutter.
The man then bit the 18-year-old on the face.
'He's obviously delirious on something,' Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said. 'He is a huge guy. He takes a fighting stance. They're trying to get him on the ground. He starts charging them. The Taser did not affect him.'
A deluge of police cars arrived, and deputies shot the assailant with a Taser but it didn't faze him.
'The man then charged our deputy, and he discharged his firearm,' the spokesperson tells New Times. 'But he was not incapacitated. He was then Tased, but that also had no effect.'
'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,' the sheriff said. '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.'
'He takes a fighting stance. They're trying to get him on the ground. He starts charging them,' Bradshaw said.
That's when a sergeant fired three times, once to the torso and twice on the lower part of the body. The man was taken to Delray Medical Center, where he died.
Authorities say, though it wasn't clear whether it was the gunshots or the drugs that ultimately killed him. Deputies say they suspect the man was on some sort of narcotic and haven't identified him yet.
The injured police officer and the teen were also taken to the hospital.
The sheriff said investigators are trying to figure out the man's identity and to get some background information on about him.
Bradshaw said the man was 'obviously on some kind of narcotics to act like this.'
'The deputies had to do what they had to do to disable this guy so he didn't get into this gated community and wreak havoc in there,' Bradshaw said.
The case has chilling similarities to that Rudy Eugene, a Miami cannibal who was shot dead by police in 2012 as he chewed off a homeless man's face.
The man, Rudy Eugene, was shot and killed by a Miami police officer. Witnesses said he had been swinging from a light pole minutes before the attack. Lab tests found only marijuana in his system.
His victim, Ronald Poppo, was attacked as he slept by a busy highway. He lost his left eye, his nose and most of the surrounding skin.
