Sick fuck
FSU Student, Suspected to be High on Flakka, Allegedly Ate Victim's Face After Stabbing Him and Wife to Death.
A 19-year-old Florida State University fraternity brother allegedly stabbed a couple to death then tried to eat part of one victim's face – possibly after taking the synthetic drug Flakka, PEOPLE confirms.
Austin Harrouff, who initially gave police a fake name, allegedly stabbed a married couple to death on Monday and was found trying to bite off chunks of the man's face, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder tells PEOPLE.
"What pushed our Florida State student into this? We do not know," Snyder said at a Tuesday press conference after identifying the man.
Snyder tells PEOPLE that the first deputy arrived at the scene in the driveway of the couple's Tequesta home and "the suspect was on top of our victim, clutching him in a bear hug and biting him in the face."
"[The deputy] shot him with a taser ... that didn't work," he says. "Another deputy got there, two deputies, and they engaged the suspect and they said they used every bit of strength they had."
He added: "It was an impossible task to get him off of the victim. And another officer from a nearby municipality arrived and deployed a dog on him to try to get him off. Then finally, after minutes of fighting, they were able to get the offender off of the victim, but the victim was dead."
The deceased are John Joseph Stevens III, 59, and 53-year-old Michelle Karen Mishcon, who neighbors told PEOPLE were a "loving couple."
Snyder says that Harrouff allegedly attacked the couple as they sat in their "open garage," and called the incident a "random" and "unprovoked" attack. He said deputies found the woman dead in the garage.
Harrouff has been charged with one count of aggravated battery but will be charged with home invasion and two counts of murder. However, Snyder says, there is a chance that Harrouff could die in the hospital as a result of either "sustained trauma" from officers or a drug overdose.
"He's heavily sedated ... last night he was intubated, so he was getting assistance to breathe,' Snyder tells PEOPLE.
He does not have a lawyer and has not entered a plea. Snyder says police have not determined a motive for the attack.
Harrouff was out to dinner with his mother and father at around 8:30 p.m. prior to the attack, but allegedly became upset about the "slow service" and stormed out of the restaurant, Snyder tells PEOPLE. He said at the press conference that this prompted his fraternity brothers to go searching the neighborhood for him.
"He walked from that restaurant and, for reasons we do not know, inexplicably turned down the residential street where our two victims lived," Snyder tells PEOPLE, noting that the couple is known to sit in their garage with the door open at night.
"[He] apparently attacked both of them with a knife that he was known to carry," the sheriff says. "He carries a switchblade. He began stabbing and assaulting both the husband and the wife."
The sheriff said at the press conference that Harrouff was "abnormally strong" during the alleged attack. Harrouff was taken to a hospital where, Snyder said, he made "animal-like" – noises including "grunting" and "growling" – and was somewhat incoherent.
Evidence showed that the male victim tried to fight back, and that multiple weapons were used in the attack, Harrouff said.
Snyder said the man suffered an "unusual amount of trauma," suffering stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the body and head.
The incident bears eerie similarity to the gory 2012 case of Rudy Eugene, who bit off parts of a homeless man's face, according to the The Miami Herald. In that case, the victim lived. And while Eugene was first rumored to be on a different drug, bath salts, a blood tests showed he only had marijuana in his system.
Snyder said Monday that police have to wait for completed toxicology reports to determine whether the suspect in Monday's incident was on drugs. But he said he "would not be surprised" if the man was under the influence of flakka – a psychoactive stimulant that has been linked to bizarre behavior and drug overdoses.
"When you see a case like this where someone is biting off pieces of somebody's face, could it be flakka?" Snyder said. "The answer is it absolutely could be a flakka case."
He noted that Harrouff's core body temperature was not elevated like it would have been if flakka was involved. He tells PEOPLE that he exhibited several symptoms evidenced in flakka users, but initial reports found that he was not on cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana.
Snyder said at the Tuesday press conference that no evidence indicated that the suspect knew the victims.
A neighbor who tried to intervene was stabbed by the suspect as well and was being treated at a hospital Monday night, Snyder said.
A 19-year-old Florida State University fraternity brother allegedly stabbed a couple to death then tried to eat part of one victim's face – possibly after taking the synthetic drug Flakka, PEOPLE confirms.
Austin Harrouff, who initially gave police a fake name, allegedly stabbed a married couple to death on Monday and was found trying to bite off chunks of the man's face, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder tells PEOPLE.
"What pushed our Florida State student into this? We do not know," Snyder said at a Tuesday press conference after identifying the man.
Snyder tells PEOPLE that the first deputy arrived at the scene in the driveway of the couple's Tequesta home and "the suspect was on top of our victim, clutching him in a bear hug and biting him in the face."
"[The deputy] shot him with a taser ... that didn't work," he says. "Another deputy got there, two deputies, and they engaged the suspect and they said they used every bit of strength they had."
He added: "It was an impossible task to get him off of the victim. And another officer from a nearby municipality arrived and deployed a dog on him to try to get him off. Then finally, after minutes of fighting, they were able to get the offender off of the victim, but the victim was dead."
The deceased are John Joseph Stevens III, 59, and 53-year-old Michelle Karen Mishcon, who neighbors told PEOPLE were a "loving couple."
Snyder says that Harrouff allegedly attacked the couple as they sat in their "open garage," and called the incident a "random" and "unprovoked" attack. He said deputies found the woman dead in the garage.
Harrouff has been charged with one count of aggravated battery but will be charged with home invasion and two counts of murder. However, Snyder says, there is a chance that Harrouff could die in the hospital as a result of either "sustained trauma" from officers or a drug overdose.
"He's heavily sedated ... last night he was intubated, so he was getting assistance to breathe,' Snyder tells PEOPLE.
He does not have a lawyer and has not entered a plea. Snyder says police have not determined a motive for the attack.
Harrouff was out to dinner with his mother and father at around 8:30 p.m. prior to the attack, but allegedly became upset about the "slow service" and stormed out of the restaurant, Snyder tells PEOPLE. He said at the press conference that this prompted his fraternity brothers to go searching the neighborhood for him.
"He walked from that restaurant and, for reasons we do not know, inexplicably turned down the residential street where our two victims lived," Snyder tells PEOPLE, noting that the couple is known to sit in their garage with the door open at night.
"[He] apparently attacked both of them with a knife that he was known to carry," the sheriff says. "He carries a switchblade. He began stabbing and assaulting both the husband and the wife."
The sheriff said at the press conference that Harrouff was "abnormally strong" during the alleged attack. Harrouff was taken to a hospital where, Snyder said, he made "animal-like" – noises including "grunting" and "growling" – and was somewhat incoherent.
Evidence showed that the male victim tried to fight back, and that multiple weapons were used in the attack, Harrouff said.
Snyder said the man suffered an "unusual amount of trauma," suffering stab wounds and blunt force trauma to the body and head.
The incident bears eerie similarity to the gory 2012 case of Rudy Eugene, who bit off parts of a homeless man's face, according to the The Miami Herald. In that case, the victim lived. And while Eugene was first rumored to be on a different drug, bath salts, a blood tests showed he only had marijuana in his system.
Snyder said Monday that police have to wait for completed toxicology reports to determine whether the suspect in Monday's incident was on drugs. But he said he "would not be surprised" if the man was under the influence of flakka – a psychoactive stimulant that has been linked to bizarre behavior and drug overdoses.
"When you see a case like this where someone is biting off pieces of somebody's face, could it be flakka?" Snyder said. "The answer is it absolutely could be a flakka case."
He noted that Harrouff's core body temperature was not elevated like it would have been if flakka was involved. He tells PEOPLE that he exhibited several symptoms evidenced in flakka users, but initial reports found that he was not on cocaine, methamphetamine or marijuana.
Snyder said at the Tuesday press conference that no evidence indicated that the suspect knew the victims.
A neighbor who tried to intervene was stabbed by the suspect as well and was being treated at a hospital Monday night, Snyder said.
I don't understand why people fuck with flakka. It is not like you are catch a good buzz. I have friends that are close with the family and they are absolutely devastated over this senseless crime. The best thing that could happen to the 19 year old is for him to die. I also handled an unrelated legal matter for the police officer that shot the flakka perpetrator in Miami who was eating his victim. They have to get this shit off of the streets.
Here`s the sick bastard.
I have a write-up on Flakka.
Flakka is a designer drug that can be snorted, smoked, injected or swallowed. It may also be combined with other, softer drugs such as marijuana.
Flakka is most typically made from the chemical alpha-PVP, which is a synthetic version of the amphetamine-like stimulant cathinone. Cathinones are chemicals derived from the khat plant grown in the Middle East and Somalia, where the leaves are frequently chewed for a euphoric buzz.
It's the same class of chemical that's used to make so-called bath salts, a drug that was found to be behind a number of alarming incidents, including the case of a man in Miami who allegedly chewed another man's face while high on bath salts in 2012.
The immediate and long-term effects of cathinones can rival some of the strongest crystal meth and cocaine.
Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at the Center for Applied Research on Substance Use and Health Disparities at Nova Southeastern University in Broward County, Florida, told CBS News that cathinones are the next, even more potent class of drugs to take over where MDMA leaves off. MDMA, known widely as Molly, has been the cause of a number of fatalities and the recent round of overdoses that hospitalized a dozen people at Wesleyan University.
Hall says the drug is designed to cause the brain to flood with dopamine, a hormone that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers, and then block the transmitters, producing an intense feeling of euphoria. "Normally when dopamine would be released, even naturally or even with other drugs, it then gets reuptaked -- it goes back to its original transmitting neuron," said Hall. "But in this case, its reuptake is blocked so it remains there."
Taking additional flakka while already high -- a practice known as "snacking" -- or combining cathinones with other drugs often leads to serious health complications including rapid heart rate, agitation, extreme aggression and psychosis.
"We're starting to see a rash of cases of a syndrome referred to as excited delirium," said Hall. "This is where the body goes into hyperthermia, generally a temperature of 105 degrees. The individual becomes psychotic, they often rip off their clothes and run out into the street violently and have an adrenaline-like strength and police are called and it takes four or five officers to restrain them. Then once they are restrained, if they don't receive immediate medical attention they can die."
Cathinone use can also cause rhabdomyolysis, which is a melting of the muscle tissue and the release of muscle fibers into the blood stream. This can lead to kidney failure and result in a user needing permanent dialysis.
The drug's name appears to have several meanings, says Hall. The word flaca means skinny in Spanish. "When we first heard the word we thought it was referring to the fact that it's a strong stimulant, almost all stimulants have an appetite depressant quality to them, an almost anorexic quality."
But Hall said flakka is also a Hispanic colloquial word that means a "beautiful, elegant woman who charms all she meets." The drug name also may be associated with a famous hip-hop artist Waka Flocka Flame.
In recent years there's been a rise in the number of national crime lab reports for cathinones, along with a decline in cases involving MDMA, which is the active chemical in both Molly and Ecstasy.
Hall says designer drugs like flakka are not always pure, which means that frequently the customer and dealer don't actually know what's in the product. Hall says that in 2013 there were a total of 126 reported deaths tied to synthetic cathinone in Florida.
"One of the kind of 21st century trends in drug supply is creating new brand names like flakka and building its popularity and then selling anything," said Hall, who authored a report on the designer drug market in Florida. "Elsewhere in the country [flakka is] actually quite a popular drug. It's often sold under the street name gravel because of its crystal, small, lumped-up appearance that looks like grainy pebbles or gravel in an aquarium."
Hall added that there have been recent reports of a designer drug marketed as flakka in Ohio and Houston as well as Florida.
Flakka is one of a number of cathinone-based drugs that are produced in China and sold online to small-time drug gangs in the U.S. And the business is lucrative. Hall says that with small investment of only a few thousand dollars, a dealer can walk away with as much as $75,000.
"The main issue with this whole category is that the user just doesn't know what they're taking or the strength of what they're taking, and literally they are the guinea pigs," he said. "We're referring to these as the guinea pig drugs. Often the dealer might not even know what they're selling."
Flakka is most typically made from the chemical alpha-PVP, which is a synthetic version of the amphetamine-like stimulant cathinone. Cathinones are chemicals derived from the khat plant grown in the Middle East and Somalia, where the leaves are frequently chewed for a euphoric buzz.
It's the same class of chemical that's used to make so-called bath salts, a drug that was found to be behind a number of alarming incidents, including the case of a man in Miami who allegedly chewed another man's face while high on bath salts in 2012.
The immediate and long-term effects of cathinones can rival some of the strongest crystal meth and cocaine.
Jim Hall, an epidemiologist at the Center for Applied Research on Substance Use and Health Disparities at Nova Southeastern University in Broward County, Florida, told CBS News that cathinones are the next, even more potent class of drugs to take over where MDMA leaves off. MDMA, known widely as Molly, has been the cause of a number of fatalities and the recent round of overdoses that hospitalized a dozen people at Wesleyan University.
Hall says the drug is designed to cause the brain to flood with dopamine, a hormone that helps control the brain's reward and pleasure centers, and then block the transmitters, producing an intense feeling of euphoria. "Normally when dopamine would be released, even naturally or even with other drugs, it then gets reuptaked -- it goes back to its original transmitting neuron," said Hall. "But in this case, its reuptake is blocked so it remains there."
Taking additional flakka while already high -- a practice known as "snacking" -- or combining cathinones with other drugs often leads to serious health complications including rapid heart rate, agitation, extreme aggression and psychosis.
"We're starting to see a rash of cases of a syndrome referred to as excited delirium," said Hall. "This is where the body goes into hyperthermia, generally a temperature of 105 degrees. The individual becomes psychotic, they often rip off their clothes and run out into the street violently and have an adrenaline-like strength and police are called and it takes four or five officers to restrain them. Then once they are restrained, if they don't receive immediate medical attention they can die."
Cathinone use can also cause rhabdomyolysis, which is a melting of the muscle tissue and the release of muscle fibers into the blood stream. This can lead to kidney failure and result in a user needing permanent dialysis.
The drug's name appears to have several meanings, says Hall. The word flaca means skinny in Spanish. "When we first heard the word we thought it was referring to the fact that it's a strong stimulant, almost all stimulants have an appetite depressant quality to them, an almost anorexic quality."
But Hall said flakka is also a Hispanic colloquial word that means a "beautiful, elegant woman who charms all she meets." The drug name also may be associated with a famous hip-hop artist Waka Flocka Flame.
In recent years there's been a rise in the number of national crime lab reports for cathinones, along with a decline in cases involving MDMA, which is the active chemical in both Molly and Ecstasy.
Hall says designer drugs like flakka are not always pure, which means that frequently the customer and dealer don't actually know what's in the product. Hall says that in 2013 there were a total of 126 reported deaths tied to synthetic cathinone in Florida.
"One of the kind of 21st century trends in drug supply is creating new brand names like flakka and building its popularity and then selling anything," said Hall, who authored a report on the designer drug market in Florida. "Elsewhere in the country [flakka is] actually quite a popular drug. It's often sold under the street name gravel because of its crystal, small, lumped-up appearance that looks like grainy pebbles or gravel in an aquarium."
Hall added that there have been recent reports of a designer drug marketed as flakka in Ohio and Houston as well as Florida.
Flakka is one of a number of cathinone-based drugs that are produced in China and sold online to small-time drug gangs in the U.S. And the business is lucrative. Hall says that with small investment of only a few thousand dollars, a dealer can walk away with as much as $75,000.
"The main issue with this whole category is that the user just doesn't know what they're taking or the strength of what they're taking, and literally they are the guinea pigs," he said. "We're referring to these as the guinea pig drugs. Often the dealer might not even know what they're selling."
