On Monday night, 19 year old Austin Kelly Harrouff of Florida went homicidally berserk for reasons yet unknown. He stabbed to death a random couple twice his age, also attacking a neighbor who tried to intervene. Then Austin began biting the dead man’s face off.
Horrible new details are out today. When Austin’s frightened mom called 911 to report his erratic, menacing behavior with family, she told the emergency dispatcher that her son was wearing a Donald Trump “Make America Great Again” hat when he wandered off into the night ranting about being a superhero. And in a YouTube video uploaded before the attack, he spoke to the camera about bodybuilding and steroids, and of taking “a lot of shrooms.”
A person familiar with the family gave reporters two snapchats Austin sent out hours before the attack. The snapchats show him making faces for the camera with the words “Trump” and “the horse” captioning the images.
Austin Harrouff was found Monday night by Florida deputies in the couple’s garage, still crouched over the bleeding body of the man he stabbed and “biting chunks of his face off” while grunting and making animal noises, authorities later said.
When the officers arrived, they tried to subdue the killer with attack dogs and non-lethal weapons, but they didn’t shoot him because he wasn’t black.
The Florida State University student and Alpha Delta Phi fraternity member from Jupiter, Florida is recovering from surgery on his hand at St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach. “He had deteriorated to life-threatening condition Tuesday, but was upgraded to stable Wednesday and was coherent.”
Anyway, turns out young Mr. Harrouff was a Donald Trump fan, and while biting chunks of his victim’s face off, the teen was wearing a “Make America Great Again” cap.
From the Palm Beach Post:
Speaking in a sometimes shaky voice Monday night to a Jupiter police dispatcher, the mother of Austin Harrouff is heard on a police recording saying her son was “a little delusional…and he feels immortal, like a superhero.”
Mina Harrouff made the phone call just before midnight Monday to Jupiter police from her home in The Shores development. Austin left the Duffy Sports Grill restaurant on Indiantown Road and Island Way in Jupiter about 10 p.m. and was last seen walking north on Island Way, she told police.
Austin was wearing a red hat reading “Make America Great Again.” He was carrying a pocket knife, said Mina Harrouff. “I think that is all he has on him,” she told the police dispatcher.
About two hours later at about 2:30 a.m., Jupiter police returned to the Harrouff home. Police informed Mina Harrouff her son was in custody on charges of murder for fatally stabbing John Stevens, 59, and his wife, 53-year-old Michelle Mishcon, at their home on Southeast Kokomo Lane in Jupiter River Estates, a high-end community between Interstate 95 and the Loxahatchee River about five miles north of Indiantown Road.
USA Today’s Tallahassee Florida partner newspaper covered Harrouff’s bizarre online persona.
Harrouff used the alias “Austi Frosti” in some of the internet accounts identified by reporters as having been created by the double murder suspect. In his YouTube channel’s description, Harrouff writes: “I’ve got a psycho side and a normal side. I’ve lost my mind. Help me find it.”
Here’s a photo post from Austin’s Twitter account. An oddly foreshadowing image.
Here's Austin Harrouff's senior picture from Suncoast High School @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/U98EDsungK
— Michael Buczyner (@MichaelBCBS12) August 16, 2016
Family friends: John & Michelle Stevens' Facebook photos show them boating, both loved being on the water @CBS12 pic.twitter.com/fjFuctmpOr
— Cory Pippin (@CoryPippinTV) August 16, 2016
[Thanks, Gina!]