A Minnesota teen is behind bars after police say he brutally attacked a family member on Friday, ripping the victim’s eyes out.

NBC reports that 18-year-old Mahad Aziz is accused of gouging the eyes of his 74-year-old family member completely out of their sockets and busting out most of the victim’s teeth. When police arrived to the Rochester Square Apartments, where the incident reportedly took place, they saw Aziz on top of the elderly man, straddling him with a pool of blood around the victim.

“You just don’t know until you get on scene. And for our officers, they are trained to expect the unexpected,” Captain of Investigations of Rochester Police Department John Sherwin said.

“In this case they certainly encountered a scene that you often don’t see.”

Police said that attack on the elderly victim was “vicious,” making it difficult to determine exactly what transpired, but detained Aziz and transported him to the Mayo Clinic for a mental evaluation. Aziz apparently refused to explain what happened and is reportedly not speaking to authorities at all.

The victim survived the incident but the brutal attack left him permanently handicapped, which resulted in an initial first-degree felony assault charge against Aziz. According to Sherwin, the victim’s eyes still have not been found.

“It’s a permanent injury that’s disabling. A permanent loss of a bodily function. And obviously that applies in this case. You lose your eyes, it’s not…there’s no replacement. Obviously this is an injury that is going to change this mans life.”

According to the Post Bulletin, Rochester police said there’s no indication that any weapons or drugs were involved in the altercation.

Meanwhile, lead attorney of Olmsted County criminal division, Geoff Hjerleid, said on Tuesday that they were in the process of pursuing an involuntary commitment and a Mentally Ill and Dangerous commitment against the suspect. This means that the previous assault charge will not be filed at this time.

“We are proceeding with that rather than filing criminal charges at this time simply because having criminal charge pending could negatively impact the commitment process including restricting his placement,” Hjerleid said.

“It was pretty clear that based on the nature of the assault and based on information from family members and our own officers’ observations that there was a significant mental health aspect.”

The story is still developing. Check back with CrimeOnline as additional details become available.

[Feature Photo: Pixabay]