A 38-year-old man was officially charged on Thursday with poisoning eight homeless people, to whom he had given food containing a very irritating substance used in particular in defense sprays, to film their reactions.
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The victims were all intoxicated in the town of Huntington Beach, south of Los Angeles, suffering from various symptoms such as vomiting, breathing difficulties and severe gastric pain, the services of the Orange County prosecutor said in a statement. According to them, several of the poisoned homeless people had to be hospitalized after having ingested foods containing oleoresin capsicum, "twice as powerful as the pepper spray used by the police" and extracted from a variety of peppers.
The suspect, William Robert Cable, is accused of deliberately poisoning the poor to watch their suffering, which he was filming. He had convinced several victims to consume this food by offering them beer in exchange. "These humans have been targeted because they are vulnerable. They have been exploited and poisoned as part of a perverse form of entertainment, " said prosecutor Todd Spitzer, calling on the public to report other potential victims and suspects to the authorities.