Martin County sheriff’s spokeswoman Trisha Kukuvka said in a text message that Harrouff is scheduled to undergo hand surgery later Wednesday.
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Austin Harrouff is now listed in stable condition at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, according to Martin County deputies.
Harrouff was also taken to the hospital, where he is stable and coherent, deputies said.
“It looks like an unprovoked and random attack on two people sitting in a garage”, said Sheriff Snyder, who outlined the disturbing details of the attack during a news conference on Tuesday morning.
“His garage was always open”, Stevens says, remembering the space as the couple’s second living room including a television, couch and bar.
“It is not super important to me what his mindset was”, Stevens told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday.
He wants prosecutors to seek the death penalty against the attacker.
He said: “I just think that this kid had a steroids dependency and had a bad, bad roid rage that night”.
The neighbor was hospitalized with serious injuries, but is expected to recover, authorities said.
Doctors tested Harrouff for common drugs such as cocaine, opiates, methamphetamine, and marijuana, but all of the results came back negative. In a video he recently posted online, Harrouff suggested he may have taken steroids in the past, but said he doesn’t use them now.
“The FBI can go deeper into the blood and make sure there’s nothing in there, no substances that we might have missed here in Florida”, Snyder said. Fisher’s father said his son tried to stop the attack. Snyder also said that Harrouff had taken off some of his clothes, but did not have an elevated body temperature, which can happen after taking Flakka or bath salts.
Harrouff’s family attorney, Michelle Suskauer, told NBC affiliate WPTV that there some questions in the case that may never be answered.
On Monday night, Austin Harrouff and his family were at Duffy’s Sports Grill in Jupiter, FL. Harrouff had been acting erratic, telling his mother he felt as if he had special powers like immortality. She called Jupiter police about 11:45 p.m., not knowing about the attack reported about 9:20 p.m.
Snyder said that Harrouff lived with his mother a few miles away and is enrolled at FSU where he is a member of a fraternity. But certainly, there are mental health issues that are going to have to be investigated here. Friends told Local 10 News that the pair loved boating and fishing.
The sheriff said Harrouff was growling like an animal and was abnormally strong. “Somebody not feeling pain, not responding to a dog bite, repeated stuns from a Taser, taking three to four deputies and officer dog to get him off”.
She said Harrouff will be charged with first-degree murder in the death of Michelle Mischon Stevens and John Stevens, attempted first-degree murder in the attempting killing of Jeffrey Fisher, armed burglary and resisting an officer without violence.
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“There are no words we can offer to give any real comfort for this tragic loss”, the statement said.
