This is a horrific story with a complicated angle: a 19-year-old Florida man murdered two apparent strangers and tried to eat flesh from one of his victims faces, and police were able to forcibly detain the man and bring him safely into custody.
Austin Harrouff is believed to have been on some sort of drug when he attacked 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon, and 59-year-old John Stevens lll in Tequesta, Florida. When a neighbor came on the property to try to intervene, Harrouff stabbed them as well.
When police arrived, Harrouff was on top of Stevens attempting to eat his face. Police tased the man, sicced a K9 on him, and when neither of those worked, 4 officers worked to pry the man off of his victim. No shots were fired.
According to police, Harrouff is now in critical condition himself and may not survive to face trial. It is unclear what injuries he sustained.
Can we just pause for a minute and remember the 12-year-old boy who was killed for waving around a fake gun? Or the man who was pinned to the ground, detained, when officers became afraid and shot him point-blank until he died? Or maybe the man who tried to tell officers that he had a legally concealed weapon during a routine traffic stop and wound up dead?
Not related, sure, but is it really that simple?
There are many instances of white men being able to perform actions and survive that would have gotten a black man murdered in an instant. People try to defend the action of cops by saying “the guy had a weapon!” or “he was acting violently,” and yet when a white man literally eats the flesh off of another person after murdering the person and his wife, stabs a neighbor who tried to intervene, and finally refuses to cooperate with police, he is still taken into custody alive?
Clearly, the capability is there, the willingness is not always so.
If you can commit cannibalism and walk away with your life, it really makes the other deaths by police seem even less justified.
