STUART, Fla. — A college student caught biting a victim’s face after stabbing the man and his wife in a random attack dared deputies to test him for drugs, a Florida sheriff’s office spokeswoman said Saturday.
Nineteen-year-old Austin Harrouff told deputies, “Test me. You won’t find any drugs,” after deputies responded to the home of 59-year-old John Stevens and his 53-year-old wife, Michelle Mishcon, Martin County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Trisha Kukuva said in a statement.
The couple died Monday night after Harrouff attacked them and tried to bite off Stevens’ face.
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The sheriff’s office says Harrouff will be charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the couple’s death, as well as attempted first-degree murder for the stabbing of the couple’s neighbor, Jeff Fisher, who suffered multiple wounds when he tried to intervene before calling 911.
Kukuva also said Saturday that Harrouff bit Stevens in the abdomen.
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The FBI is conducting toxicology tests at the agency’s lab in Quantico, Va. to determine if Harrouff was under the influence of any substances.
Hospital blood tests showed no signs of methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin or other common drugs; it will take longer to test for less common hallucinogenic drugs such as flakka or bath salts, whose abusers have been known to become suddenly and irrationally violent.
Harrouff currently is in stable condition at a hospital where he was taken for treatment after deputies had to use a police dog and a taser gun on him before he was subdued. The sheriff’s office says he was growling like a dog and had abnormal strengthen, requiring several deputies to pull him off Stevens.
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Investigators have been unable to interview him because he is heavily medicated and on breathing tube, Kukuva said.
The Florida State student is expected to be released from the hospital next week, she said.
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