Associated Press Release
By BRENDAN FARRINGTON
Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- In 2012, Florida was a state where a lifeguard got fired for saving a life, a woman got arrested for riding a manatee and a man repeatedly used 911 as a phone sex service.
Think that's weird? It gets worse.
In one of the state's most horrifying stories of the year, a man attacked a homeless man in Miami, chewing off most of his face before police fatally shot him. And it wasn't the only story of its kind. In Manatee County, deputies used multiple Tasers to subdue a naked man who bit off part of another man's arm.
Later in the year a man won a roach-eating contest outside a pet store and then dropped dead in front of the store when body parts he swallowed blocked his airway.
AP-WF-12-27-12 1142GMT
