Face-Chewing Victim Recalls Attack

In a recorded interview, Ronald Poppo tells police his eyes were plucked out

City of Miami Police have released a recorded interview with Ronald Poppo, whose face was mauled off over Memorial Day Weekend.

In the interview, Poppo tells police when 31-year-old Rudy Eugene approached him, he was in a "glad mood" but turned "kind of vicious after a minute or two and then started to rip me apart."

During the recorded interview on July 19, Poppo told detectives “he just ripped me to ribbons, he chewed up my face, he plucked out my eyes.”

Poppo said Eugene had just come back from the beach and had apparently had a bad day.

"He didn't like the beach, he said he wasn't scoring there or something," Poppo said. “For a while he was acting nice, then got a little bit flustered. He probably remembered some incident on the beach and got kinda mad about things."

Report: Face-Chewer Met Victim Before

Poppo said Eugene snapped and began attacking him.

“I didn’t do a thing, I didn’t know how to get away from the guy," Poppo said, adding that Eugene was bigger than him and had the advantage.

"At the same time he was picking my eyes out, he was strangling me in wrestling holds," Poppo said.

Eugene was fatally shot by police on the MacArthur Causeway when he refused to stop chewing on Poppo's face.

Toxocology Report on Face-Chewer

Officials said 50 percent of Poppo's face was affected. He was taken to Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center to recover.

Doctors Say Poppo 'Doing Very Well'

Eugene at first acted nice and but then began talking funny, Poppo told detectives.

"He was talking kinda funny talk," he said. "That I was gonna die, that he was gonna die."

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