BRIDGEPORT, CT — Over a decade ago, Tyree Lincoln Smith turned a homeless man’s final moments into a horror show—killing him with an axe, then devouring his eye and brain. Now, the so-called “Cannibal Killer” is set to taste freedom again, and the decision’s got people raging from courtrooms to X feeds. What’s the catch?
Back in 2011, Smith, then 35, lured Angel “Tun Tun” Gonzalez to an abandoned Bridgeport apartment and hacked him to death. Hours later, at Lakeview Cemetery, he ate parts of Gonzalez’s brain and eyeball, claiming it’d “make him stronger.” A jury in 2013 didn’t buy his sanity—diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, he dodged prison for a padded cell at Connecticut Valley Hospital in Middletown. Fast forward to February 20, 2025: the state’s Psychiatric Security Review Board greenlit his conditional release, saying he’s no longer a threat if he sticks to a tight leash—meds, supervision, no booze or drugs.
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Smith’s due to step out by late February or early March, landing in a supervised mental health facility right back in Bridgeport, not far from where he left bloodstains and nightmares. Prosecutors are livid. State’s Attorney Kevin Dunn called it “an unacceptable risk,” pointing to Smith’s gruesome crime and a 2009 assault in Florida. Online, folks are losing it: “Ten years for eating a guy? I’d get more for tax evasion!” one X user fumed. Smith’s defense, though, says he’s a changed man—treatment’s worked wonders, and the law’s about healing, not just locking away.
