This handout image provided by the Miami Dade Police Department shows Rudy Eugene, the 31-year-old man who was shot dead by police as he ate the face of a homeless man during Memorial Day weekend in Miami.
A woman claiming to be the girlfriend of the man shot dead by police as he chewed off the face of a homeless person said yesterday that she felt safe with him.
Yovonka Bryant said that Rudy Eugene, 31, was a man of faith and must have been drugged without his knowledge before the attack on 65-year-old Ronald Poppo. They had been together for four months.
"I felt safe with Rudy," Bryant said, speaking for the first time since the incident in Miami last week, AP reported.
"I only saw him smoke a marijuana cigarette once," she said, Reuters reported.
According to News One, there was no indication that Eugene had a history of mental illness.
According to Bryant, Rudy never drank or used drugs.
Bryant is the second woman to come forward and identify herself as Eugene's girlfriend. The other woman, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that she had been dating Eugene for five years and that she believed that he was either drugged, or that a voodoo curse was put on him, the Boston Herald reported.
Police shot and killed Eugene after he failed to respond to orders to stop attacking Poppo, who remains in critical condition in a Miami hospital. He has suffered the loss of most of his face, including his mouth, nose, and ears.
According to Reuters, officers have been cautioned to be extremely careful around disorderly homeless men, who they believe may be on "Cloud Nine" a type of drug closely related to "bath salts," after another homeless man threatened to eat two police officers.
More from GlobalPost: Mother of face-eating attacker Rudy Eugene: "He was no zombie" (VIDEO)
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