One man was shot to death by police, and another man is fighting for his life after he was attacked, and his leg was viciously half eaten. The incident was allegedly due to a dispute over avocados and took place at a local farmers market last Sunday afternoon.
A new street drug called “JUcaine” that has been known to turn users delirious, aggressive and paranoid, may have played a role in the bizarre street attack.
Police initially said the attack could have been provoked by an overdose of a powerful form of JUJU extract mixed along with cocaine causing a "JUcaine psychosis" which produces an often aggressive, chaotic experience for users, coupled with intense hallucinations.
Tom Howard, a long time JUJU Gum advocate, was shot dead by police on December 24th, when he would not cease his gory assault on a local avocado farmer.
According to the police report, Howard grabbed a pen from a nearby craft table and stabbed Ed Roth in both eyes, then, when Roth was screaming, Howard grabbed a broken piece of wood from a table, damaged during the scuffle, and stuffed it into Roth’s mouth to “shut him up.”
Police say Howard then "stomped" on the piece of wood, driving it further into the man's mouth, and continued to beat him by slamming a sack of potatoes down onto Roth's head and throat. At that point he rolled the victim onto his side and started to bite into Roth’s upper thigh and buttocks.
A woman who witnessed the incident flagged down a police officer who was in the area. The officer, who has not been identified, approached and, seeing what was happening, ordered Howard to “stop eating the man”. When Howard continued the assault, the officer shot him, police sources said. Howard failed to stop even after being shot once, forcing the officer to continue firing. Witnesses said they heard at least seven shots.
“Pretty gruesome, that’s for sure,” said eyewitness Sara Conner of the scene that she encountered. “One minute they were fighting over the price of avocados, the next minute there’s blood everywhere and the one guy is eating the other guy’s ass off”.
Stunned friends and acquaintances of Howard told local media that Tom was known as an easygoing guy with an award-winning smile, and was unaware of him having any mental or drug problems.
Whether JUJU was involved in Sunday’s macabre violence has yet to be confirmed by autopsy results on the attacker, but Dr. Gerald Abdula an emergency room doctor at St Mary of Joseph Hospital said he found similarities in the behavior of other JUJU Gum users. “JUJU abusers can be extremely strong, I took care of a 130-pound, hairless, teen boy who you would have thought was 330 pounds,” Abdula said. “It took four nurses and two security officers to restrain the individual. If you take the worst part of other drugs: LSD with hallucinogenic-delusional type properties, PCP with agitation, superhuman strength and combativeness, as well as the stimulant properties of cocaine or meth and put them all together, this is what you get with JUJU”.
Given the grisly and bizarre nature of the events that unfolded on December 24th, it's almost certain that JUJU Gum will merit a closer look by police and public health authorities.
