Austin Harrouff is now listed in stable condition at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, according to Martin County deputies.
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“I’m not going to speculate, except to say that we know in our business that people on flakka or bath salts will do this type of behavior, where they attack the victim and do the biting and actually remove pieces of flesh in the bites”, Snyder said. For one thing, police report that Harrouff did not have the elevated body temperature typically associated with flakka use.
Harrouff took off some of his clothes during the attack and when he arrived at the hospital, he was making “animal-like noises”.
According to a Jupiter police incident report, the suspect’s mother, Mina Harrouff, told officers that her son abruptly left the Duffy’s restaurant on Indiantown Road earlier that evening after he had gotten into an argument with his father while family and friends were present. He walked out of the restaurant and his anxious family called the Jupiter police, asking officers to help locate him.
About 45 minutes later, he apparently targeted the couple at random, the sheriff said.
“We know the who, the what, the when, the where and the how”, Snyder said. “We don’t know if anything is going to show up on toxicology or not”, she told the station. “I would not be surprised though if we end up finding that is the case”.
Fisher, the neighbor who tried to rescue the couple, was extremely close to them. Matt Dame, a quarterback now at Columbia University, told The Palm Beach Post that coaches were frustrated with Harrouff’s aggression, even at 6-feet tall and 200 pounds. Football teammates said coaches wanted him to be more aggressive.
“The coaches would always try to get him mad and play angry, and he never had it in him. I don’t need drugs”, he said in the video posted Thursday.
Reports state the student was “exhibiting abnormal levels of strength” and did not respond to being stunned by a deputy’s Taser, being bitten by a police dog or tackled by at least three law enforcement officers.
Finally, three to four cops were able to wrench the suspect off the dead man. Neighbors said they had a habit of sitting in their garage, where they often kept the door open while they watched television. John Joseph Stevens III, 59, was pronounced dead in the driveway.
Mina said he had been acting odd and saying unusual things.
Fisher was also stabbed multiple times by Harrouff when he tried to come to the couple’s aid. He was stabbed a total of five times, his father told CBS. He is expected to survive.
Dr. Wade Harrouff, a dentist, declined to comment about his son’s arrest.
Monday’s attack may be a sign that the drug isn’t totally gone, Snyder said.
Tequesta is a small, affluent community on the Atlantic coast about 20 miles north of Palm Beach.
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The latest findings in a horrific double-homicide in Florida Monday night has presented more questions than answers.
