Sheriff: Florida teen who tried to bite off victim’s face is in ‘life-threatenin

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A Florida State University student who police say tried to bite off the face of one victim after a gruesome double homicide Monday night is on a respirator as his medical condition worsens, authorities said. “Our suspect’s condition has deteriorated since this morning,” Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said at a news conference late Tuesday on Florida’s Treasure Coast. “He is in life-threatening condition and … whether he will ultimately survive is not known at this time.” Austin Harrouff is accused of stabbing two people to death in south Florida Monday night.

A sheriff’s deputy responded to a 911 call in an upscale neighborhood Monday night and found 19-year-old Austin Harrouff on top of a man he had just stabbed to death, “biting and removing pieces of the victim’s face with his teeth,” Snyder said earlier. The deputy fired her taser at the shirtless Harrouff, but it had no effect. Other deputies arrived and punched and kicked the suspect. Nothing. Even a police dog’s bite didn’t deter Harrouff from biting the dead man’s face, authorities said. “He was exhibiting abnormal levels of strength,” Snyder said Tuesday morning. In the end, it would take four deputies and the police dog to subdue Harrouff.

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As deputies took Harrouff into custody, he was making “guttural sounds and animal noises,” Snyder told The Washington Post, adding that he suspected the teen was high on the synthetic drug flakka.

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