To have two of them is kind of strange:
A 19-year-old Florida State University student with no criminal record fatally stabbed a couple at random outside their house, wounded their neighbor and was biting the dead man’s face when deputies finally subdued him, authorities said Tuesday.
Austin Harrouff, a former high school football defensive lineman and wrestler, may have been on hallucinogenic drugs when he attacked Michelle Mishcon, 53, and John Stevens, 59, outside their home in Tequesta, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said.
The sheriff said Harrouff had joined his family for dinner at a restaurant a short distance away when he stormed off, apparently agitated about slow service. His parents were so worried by his behavior that they called police and some of his fraternity brothers in a futile attempt to find him before the attack.
About 45 minutes later, he apparently targeted the couple at random, the sheriff said.
The first one is maybe happenstance. Two could be coincidence, but it feels like maybe there is a reproducible mechanism producing it, given this guy could have done a lot more damage with a knife, but he chose to drop the knife and begin munching.
The first case ended up testing negative for bath salts, or any other drug. The second has tested negative in preliminary tests, but they are going to try and find something with more detailed testing. I think they fear if there are no drugs in the second case, then it might open the question of whether zombie movies have permeated the consciousness of everyone to the point that a specific type of mentally ill person now regresses to that meme mentally, while in the throes of some sort of violent psychotic storm. That might mean we could see more of these as the Apocalypse unfolds.
It is kind of interesting that zombie number one saw his amygdala triggered with violation of expectation by his car not starting, he wandered off and disappeared, and the next time people saw him, he was ripping a guy’s face off with his teeth. Meanwhile zombie number two saw the service at his restaurant as being less than he expected, his amygdala was triggered, he walked out and disappeared, and the next time he appeared, he was on top of a guy, gnawing off his face.
It is shades of the Uber shooter, who showed up to pick up his fare, the fare wasn’t where he expected, and next thing you knew he was driving around, alternately killing people and ferrying around fares. Perhaps in these technologically structured times, the people with naturally weak amygdalae are growing more sensitive to those times when things do not go exactly as expected, because they experience such deviations from the expected so infrequently due to technology. When I was younger, you got lost, directions were bad, things went haywire all the time. Today people are like robots following technology’s precise orders, which usually work perfectly.
Obviously these characters wouldn’t do too well anywhere Murphy’s Law was operational.
Of course being ever the optimist, I wouldn’t rule out some sort of new brain parasite, which like rabies or T gondii, preferentially sets up shop in the amygdala, triggering uncontrollable rage and maybe even a jaw sensation that makes biting and ripping flesh feel relieving.
IMO, that would be the perfect cherry on top of our Apocalypse sundae.
[…] Another Face Eating Zombie In Florida […]
Perhaps this is a case of demonic possession? The report I read claimed he was tased twice to no avail, the police dog couldn’t stop him, and finally it took four officers to subdue him. Drugs may have been involved as well though superhuman strength is often reported as a sign of demonic possession by exorcists.
It would give us a cool new insult for people too, like spaz and postal.