Naked Man Who Tried to Eat Homeless Man's Face Identified -- and are 'Bath Salts' to Blame?

The naked man who was reportedly growling like an animal as he tried to eat the face of a homeless this weekend has been identified. And now, as more details emerge, the story becomes even more horrifying.

Though cannibalistic instincts most likely aren't reflected in physical features, the man looks normal -- rather than appearing as a crazed lunatic, the man actually looks like somebody you could bump into at the mall.

Pictured in an old police mugshot, Rudy Eugene had reportedly been arrested 8 times since the age of 16, before he was shot and killed this weekend, and four of the arrests involved marijuana. 

He even had an ex-wife, who said: "I wouldn't say he had [a] mental problem but he always felt like people was against him type of attitude."  She said the marriage ended when Eugene became increasingly violent.

"No one was for him, everyone was against him."

A neighbor said that Eugene's former home was foreclosed on in 2011, and homeless people living near where the attack took place said he would often wander around the area, looking confused.

And as more details emerge about the attacker, more emerge of the attack.

The cyclist who first spotted the grisly scene recalled: "The guy was, like, tearing him to pieces with his mouth, so I told him, 'Get off!'...The guy just kept eating the other guy away, like, ripping his skin."

"When the officer approached him, told him to stop, pointed a gun at him, he turned around and growled like a wild animal and kept eating at the man's face," Fraternal Order of Police President Armando Aguilar told WPLG-TV.

Aguilar explained that Eugene was likely under the influence of what's being called the new LSD -- "bath salts."

"It causes them to go completely insane and become very violent," and many take off their clothes because it makes them feel hot, Augilar explained.

Here is an explanation of the "bath salts," from a case where a woman reportedly swung a machete at her mother while under the influence of the drug:

“We have seen, already, three or four cases that are exactly like this where some people have admitted taking LSD and it’s no different than cocaine psychosis,” Aguilar told CBS.

"I took care of a 150 pound individual who you would have thought he was 250 pounds,” a doctor commented. “It took six security officers to restrain the individual.”

In Eugene's case, even a bullet wouldn't stop him.

Police shot him once after yelling for him to stop, but Eugene apparently continued trying to eat the other man's face.  Police shot him multiple times after that, before he collapsed and died.

"Seventy-five to 80 percent of [the homeless man's] face was missing," Armando Aguilar of the Miami Fraternal Order of Police Aguilar told NBC Miami. "He was actually swallowing pieces of the man's face."

Back in March, a naked reveler who may have taken a similar drug attacked a good samaritan and first responders after being hit by a taxi during the Ultra Music Festival.  Fourteen police officers had to be treated for blood exposure and injuries after managing to subdue the man.

“It’s dangerous for the police," Dr. Paul Adams told CBSMiami. “It’s dangerous for the fire fighters. It’s dangers for the hospital workers taking care of them because they come in, they have to be restrained both chemically and physically and you’re asking for someone to get hurt.”

And now police are warning drug dealers that the liability could fall back on them, in such cases.

“I have a message for whoever is selling it out there,” said Aguilar. “You can be arrested for murder if you are selling [this] to people, unsuspecting people on the street and somebody ends up dying as a result you will be charged with murder.”

"The guy, he was like a zombie, blood dripping, it was intense," Vega, the witness, explained. "The closest thing I've seen to it? 'The Walking Dead.'"

This story has been updated with additional information.