Doctors: Face-chewing victim 'awake and alert'

MIAMI - A homeless man whose face was mostly chewed off in a bizarre attack along a busy Miami street is now `awake and alert," according to doctors at Jackson Memorial Hospital's Ryder Trauma Center.

A photograph shown to reporters Tuesday portrayed Ronald Poppo walking down a hospital hallway, supported by hospital staff on either side of him.

Doctors were planning to talk more about his condition at a Tuesday news conference.

The photo showed the upper two-thirds of Poppo's face covered in scabs. He's missing his nose and both eye sockets were covered, one with gauze and one with what appeared to be a skin graft. His gray beard was trimmed, leaving a mustache over his upper lip.

Poppo has been at Jackson Memorial Hospital since he was attacked May 26 by Rudy Eugene. Emergency callers reported seeing a naked man swinging naked from a light pole on Miami's MacArthur Causeway a few minutes before the attack.

Surveillance video from a nearby building shows Eugene stripping Poppo and pummeling him before appearing to lie on top of him.

A police officer shot and killed Eugene. Autopsy results are still pending.