Editor's note: This story contains graphic details that may be disturbing for some people.
The footage, taken by security cameras on the Herald building in downtown Miami, shows the entire 18-minute attack, which ended when a police officer shot the attacker after he did not stop his assault on the homeless man.
The video quality is poor, and facial details and the gore of the scene are not visible. But the movements of those involved are. The shooting itself is obscured by the bridge that carries Miami's Metromover tramway over the site of the attack on the MacArthur Causeway.
It's not clear how much of the attack motorists could have seen, as there is a waist-high concrete barrier between the road and the sidewalk where the attack took place, but one of the bicyclists passed on the sidewalk, and one driver slowed down to look at the scene.
The footage shows that attacker, identified by Miami-Dade Police as Rudy Eugene, 31, walking along the sidewalk and then stopping in a shaded area created by the tramway bridge. He apparently attacks the victim, dragging him out from the shade, stripping the victim's clothes off and then beating him as the victim kicks his legs in an apparent attempt to fight back.
The attacker then spends several minutes crouched over the victim, including when a bicyclist rolls by on the sidewalk and a white sedan rolls very slowly past the scene.
Police said at least five of those passers-by called to the report the incident, according to the Miami Herald report accompanying the video.
When a patrol car arrives, the officer appears to draw his gun quickly, but the actual shooting is blocked by the tramway overpass.
Larry Vega witnessed the attack and spoke to CNN affiliate WSVN.
"The guy just kept eating the other guy away, like ripping his skin. It was just a blob of blood," he told WSVN.
The arrival of police did not deter the attacker, Fraternal Order of Police President Armando Aguilar told CNN affiliate WPLG.
"When the officer approached him, told him to stop, pointed a gun at him, he turned around and growled like a wild animal and kept eating at the man's face," Aguilar was quoted as saying by WPLG.
Augilar said he suspects that the attacker was under the influence of "bath salts," a drug that contains synthetic stimulants that can "cause chest pains, increased blood pressure, increased heart rate, agitation, hallucinations, extreme paranoia, and delusions," according to the National Institute of Drug Abuse.
Four other instances of drug use in Miami-Dade bear resemblances to Saturday's attack, Aguilar told WPLG.
Sgt. Javier Ortiz, vice president of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police, said officials won't know for certain whether drugs played a role in the attack until toxicology reports are completed in a month or so. But he said police have been seeing increased incidents of drug-induced crime in the area.
Ortiz said the victim was in critical condition at a local hospital. He could not say whether the victim and attacker knew each other.
The Herald reported that the victim's nose, face and eyes were torn off during the attack.
CNN's Adriana Hauser and Mallory Simon contributed to this report.
Read more: http://www.wptv.com/dpp/news/news_archives/miami-zombie-attack-video-footage-shows-entire-attack-by-rudy-eugene-on-ronald-poppo-police-say#ixzz1wfWD3Qtw
Zombie Apocalypse: Miami Face Eating Attack: 911 Calls Released
ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Three frantic 911 calls reporting a brutal face-eating attack are shedding new light on the painful scene passersby witnessed."He's beating another man. It's a naked man beating another man," one caller said. "He is going to kill that man. I promise you."
The grisly assault on a homeless man whose face was eaten by a deranged assailant lasted for 18 agonizing minutes and was captured on nearby surveillance cameras. The 911 calls were releaed by police late Friday.
"He is beating another man to a pulp," one caller said.
Another told police they would have no trouble finding the location.
"Can't miss him, he's naked!" the caller said.
Rudy Eugene, who authorities suspect may have been high on a dangerous new street drug known as "bath salts," had to be shot four times by a police officer to halt the cannibalistic attack.
The victim, Ronald 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 ate the man's nose, mouth and eyes.
A second cannibalistic attack occured later this week.
A 21-year-old man accused of killing a housemate told police in Harford County, Md., that he ate the victim's heart and part of his brain after killing him.
Alexander Kinyua first became a suspect when his brother found what he thought were human remains in the basement of the family's Joppatowne home. When the brother confronted Kinyua, he told him they were animal remains, according to ABC 2 News in Baltimore. The brother told the father about the grisly find, but when the father searched the basement the remains were gone.
