posted at 2:41 pm on July 11, 2012
Stories of people stripping down to their birthday
suits, going ballistic, and feeding on human flesh are sadly becoming a
daily occurrence. The most recent case, reported by St. Augustine, Fla.,
station WTLV,
has all the familiar elements in place: A 22-year-old man has to be
Tasered multiple times by police after he leaps naked from a roof, lands
on and damages a truck, urinates inside the home of a stranger, and
bites the homeowner for good measure.
The only unknown in the case is whether the man was high on bath salts—the drug of choice in these attacks—because
Florida has no statute that authorizes law enforcement agents to test a criminal suspect for the presence in his system of illegal drugs.
The suspect, Jeremiah Haughee,
needed five jolts of electricity before he became compliant last
Saturday after police responded to an early morning call from the owner
of a home in Flagler Beach reporting that a naked man was terrorizing
the residence.
According to the homeowner, the family was awakened
around 4:30 a.m. to what they at first assumed was the sound of
prowlers. Glancing out a backyard window, they saw a naked man who for
some reason was destroying their patio furniture. When the intruder
became aware of the family’s presence, he scrambled up onto the roof of
the house, remaining there briefly before leaping onto a truck parked in
the driveway, denting the hood and smashing the windshield in the act.
The homeowner and his son opened the front door,
whereupon Haughee jumped over the porch railing and wrestled both men to
the ground, breaking a picture frame. During the struggle, Haughee
urinated on the floor and bit the older man in the stomach. The police
report indicates that the bite was so severe that it will leave the man
permanently scarred. The report further notes that one of the five
officers needed to restrain Haughee also received a bite on the leg that
required medical treatment.
Once they were finally able to subdue Haughee, police
placed him in a spit hood and leg shackles as well as handcuffs. Haughee
was taken to Flagler Hospital, where he was placed under arrest even as
his wounds were treated.
Haughee was booked on charges of burglary/assault,
aggravated battery, simple battery, three counts of battery on a law
enforcement officer and criminal mischief. Haughee’s bond was set at
$32,000.
