A day or so after I first read about this, I saw The Independent’s coverage of the same story. They dug into the assailant’s background and he turns out to be the leader of an Ayahuasca (plant-based shamanic psychedelic) ‘church’ in Florida.
They also gave further confirmation that the attack appeared to be completely unprovoked, and that there was no known relationship between the attacker and victim, nor did they even seem to know each other.
Also the victim appears to be a person who is deaf and does not speak, if I remember the article correctly.
Guaifenesin works very very well for me as an expectorant.