First hospital picture of Miami cannibal victim Ronald Poppo

Update: 8/9/12

Sixty-five year old Ronald Poppo has spoken for the first time since he was attacked by Rudy Eugene on May 26 on a southern Florida street.

Poppo told police Eugene chewed up his face and plucked out his eyes.

“He just ripped me to ribbons,” Poppo said.  “He chewed up my face.  He plucked out my eyes.  Basically that’s all there is to say about it.”

He then went on to say, “He mashed my face into the sidewalk.  My face is all bent and mashed up….He was strangling me in wrestling holds at the same time he was plucking my eyes out.”

He told police that Eugene had been frustrated about being unable to buy drugs on nearby Miami Beach.

Poppo, who told police he never met Eugene before the incident, has undergone several surgeries at Jackson Memorial Hospital before he was transferred to a local-term care center.

Poppo, who was homeless, contradicted a few facts about that day.  He told police that Eugene had come from a car on the highway; however, CCTV proved this to be false and he also told police that Eugene was clothed when he attacked him.

Original story

Ronald Poppo, the 65-year-old homeless man who had his face chewed off by Miami Zombie Rudy Eugene, is awake and walking around in a Florida hospital for the first time since his attack last month.

Doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital’s Ryder Trauma Center said Poppo is eating well, but he no longer has his nose, and right eye.

Hospital officials said Poppo, who also suffered brain injuring during the assault, never once complained of being in pain.

It is believed Eugene was on drugs when he attacked Poppo on May 26, eating about 80 percent of the homeless man’s face.

Poppo was reclining under a shady overpass on Memorial Day weekend when a deranged naked Eugene fell upon him unprovoked, beat him and chewed off most of his face.

Eugene, 31, had shed all his clothes and ripped out pages from the Bible he always carried just before attacking Poppo by the McArthur Causeway.

Graphic- first photo of Poppo’s face

Eugene was shot and killed by police when he refused to stop attacking Poppo.