FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. _ On the night her son was accused of killing a couple and gnawing on the man's face, Austin Harrouff's mom told police he had suddenly started acting strangely and claimed to have superpowers.
Earlier that evening, Harrouff, a 19-year-old Florida State University student with no criminal record, stormed out of a Duffy's Sports Grill in Jupiter after an argument with his father.
She called police to report him missing, but she didn't know that 45 minutes after he left he had been arrested by Martin County Sheriff's deputies.
Harrouff didn't have a history of mental illness or heavy drug use and acted respectfully toward officers, the mother told police about her missing son.
"He says he feels immortal and like a super hero," she told a police dispatcher, adding that he was carrying a "pocketknife switchblade." "I don't know what is going on with him."
Harrouff's sister told police her brother was a "nice young man who would not hurt himself or anyone else."
After leaving the restaurant, He walked more than three miles to the Martin County home of John Stevens, 59, and Michelle Mishcon Stevens, 53, and stabbed them to death inside their garage hangout, Martin County Sheriff William Snyder said. A neighbor who tried to intervene was stabbed several times.
Three deputies and a canine subdued Harrouff as he grunted, made animal-like noises and chewed the face of John Stevens, Snyder said.
A stun gun had no effect on Harrouff, who Snyder described as being "abnormally strong" and incoherent.
Officials said Harrouff tested negative for cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and other common drugs, but that further tests would be conducted to see if he had ingested a hallucinogenic drug such as flakka or bath salts.
The slain couple had just celebrated 19 years of marriage and loved to go boating, said Stevens' son, John Stevens, 28. Their garage where they spent time together included a television, sofa and minibar.
"They weren't the type of people that locked their door at night. ... They didn't think they had to," Stevens said.
The younger Stevens said his father will never meet his 3-month-old granddaughter. Michelle Stevens worked for Northwestern Mutual, he said.
The grisly scene stands at odds with the recollections of Harrouff's football teammates at Suncoast High School in Riviera Beach, where he graduated in 2015.
Josh Lonsberry, 18, played linebacker for the Suncoast High School's football team, and played with Harrouff for three years. Lonsberry and his teammates used to call him the "gentle giant," he recalled.
"We used to get on him to even just get angry, so I'm shocked by all of this," Lonsberry said. "He was a man of very little words, but when he spoke it was always important."
Matt Dame played quarterback and remembered Harrouff as a quiet kid who coaches kept telling to be more aggressive.
"(I) never thought he would be capable of something like that," Dame said. "He just wasn't this kind of kid."
In a 2015 recruiting profile posted online, Harrouff wrote he was enrolled in the rigorous International Baccalaureate program and was maintaining a 3.35 grade-point average.
