A naked man was shot and later died in Delray Beach, Florida after he bit a teenager on the face. The six foot three man weighed 250 pound and had the build of an NFL linebacker according to Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw.
The naked man first attacked a retired New York City police officer who was 66-years-old. Though the age of the attacker has not been released, police implied that he was young and very muscular. The retired police officer was taken to the hospital to be treated for injuries. PBSO estimates that the incident began around 8:30pm Tuesday night.
Before police could arrive on the scene, the naked man turned his attention to a father and his 10-year-old son. Apparently out of his mind, he chased them down the road towards a gated community. The father and son were able to slip under the gate without harm, although the boy suffered minor injuries trying to get under the gate.
Things got dramatically out of hand when the naked man began running towards an 18-year-old teenager. After attacking the teen, he began biting his face. Bradshaw recounted the event from the victim’s point of view, “The 18-year-old thought he was trying to eat his face off. 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 teenager attempted to defend himself with a box cutter, but also had to be rushed to the hospital for serious injuries sustained during the fight.
Deputies arrived on the scene in time to save the teenagers life. Attempting to calm the man down, they tried to talk to him. When it became clear he was not going to listen, officers knew they had to take action. Pulling out their tasers, they attempted to subdue the crazed attacker. Nothing happened. As the naked man took a fighting stance, ready to charge officers, they drew their weapons. Firing three shots, one in the body and two in the lower leg, they finally were able to stop him from charging. He was taken to the hospital where he eventually died.
“We don’t know right now if he’s expired from the gunshots, or if he’s expired because of obviously he’s on some type of drugs that have made him act like this,” Sheriff Bradshaw said. “There’s no way to know if those are the shots that actually killed him, or if he’s died from what they called exited delirium. He’s obviously on some type of narcotics to make him act like this.”
Delray Beach is in South Florida, not far from Miami where a 2012 incident involved a naked man chewing on the face of another man . The attacker in that story also died, but the cause of death was never completely certain. Despite a common rumor started around the event, bath salts were not the cause of his delirium. Toxicology reports will be ordered in the autopsy of the naked man who died on Tuesday night.