Harrouff’s specific charges are as follows: first degree murder for the death of Michelle Mischon Stevens and her husband John Stevens, attempted first-degree murder for the attack on Jeffrey Fisher, armed burglary and resisting an officer without violence.
Advertisement
Harrouff’s concerned mother phoned police after her son angrily left a restaurant, anxious about his unusual behaviour and comments about being “a superhero”.
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.
AUSTIN HARROUFF, who killed a couple and tried to eat the man’s face off with “superhuman strength”, posted a series of freaky videos before the killing.
Parents Wade and Mina Harrouff issued a statement Friday expressing their condolences to the Stevens family and their apologies to Fisher “for the pain and suffering caused by Austin”.
Police described seeing Harrouff “grunting and howling” while he attempted to tear chunks of flesh off the face of his victim during the seemingly random attack on 13 August. That means he faces the death penalty or life without parole if convicted. The sheriff said he was making “animal-like sounds” when he was first taken to the hospital.
A statement from sheriff’s spokeswoman Trisha Kukuvka Friday says Austin Harrouff will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of 59-year-old John Stevens and his 53-year-old wife, Michelle Mishcon.
There are no words we can offer that we can make up for the injury sustained by Jeff Fisher who is doing what we would want all good neighbors to do which was to try to help innocent people from being hurt or killed.
A Florida man thought to be on hallucinogenic drugs fatally stabbed a couple, bit off part of the husband’s face and wounded a would-be rescuer, police said.
John Stevens IV said his father had been especially excited to attend his granddaughter’s baptism, before the brutal events that occurred Monday night.
His mother, still unaware of the attack, told Jupiter Police Offficer Luis Rocha that her son had been acting strangely for about a week, claiming he had superpowers and that he was “here to protect people”. Police say Harrouff was having dinner with his father and sister at the popular sports bar about three miles from the crime scene, and stormed out, apparently agitated about slow service.
He tested negative for street drugs. While initial blood tests came in negative for street drugs like marijuana and cocaine, another sample has been sent to the Federal Bureau of Investigation to determine if Harrouff was high on the street drug flakka, also known as bath salts.
“It is not super important to me what his mindset was”, Stevens told the Sun Sentinel on Thursday.
The couple was married for 19 years.
Martin County Sheriff’s Lt. Michael Dougherty has told the TC Palm that Fisher rushed into action after hearing Mischon’s screams from across the street.
Advertisement
William Snyder, the Martin County Sherriff, said a female police officer arrived at the scene to find the suspect on top of 59-year-old John Stevens, topless and biting his face.
