Scott Harris Philadelphia military veteran brutally beaten, robbed while walking dog in Brewerytown neighborhood near his house. Navy veteran deployed in war zones shocked by the hostility and savagery of attack that left him hospitalized with a brain injury.
When America’s cities become a makeshift war-zone and leaves seasoned veterans shaken. A retired Navy commander was brutally beaten, robbed, and left with a brain injury along with up to 100 stitches after he was attacked while walking with his dog near a Philadelphia park last week.
Scott Harris, 62, was walking his dog Nora around 11:30 p.m. Saturday when he came upon a crowd gathered at a neighborhood park in the Brewerytown neighborhood of the city.
‘There was a large party going on across the street, that in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have walked near, and the next thing I remember, I’m in the emergency room because I kind of just blacked out after that,’ Harris told Fox 29.
Escaped with his life as mob ambushed navy vet
Harris told of being ambushed and attacked from behind as he walked past the crowd, who knocked the military veteran unconscious and stole his wallet, police said, according to NBC 10.
No information on the attackers has been released.
In his wallet, Harris lost his ID, some credit cards and a personal memento.
‘Sadly, only thing I really cared about in that wallet was my mother’s driver’s license,’ Harris told NBC10. ‘She passed about 10 years ago. That’s kind of how I kept her close and now I don’t even have that.’
To date it remained unclear what provoked the savage attack on the man who had gone out for a Saturday night walk with his dog.
Harris and Nora were assisted back to his home after the attack by Good Samaritans, where his partner was waiting for him.
Previous military tours paled compared to the attack in his own Philadelphia neighborhood
‘They brought him back, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened,’ Joseph Hurchick told 6abc. ‘We were on the stoop and he was just bleeding, I was on the phone with 911, I didn’t know where the blood was coming from, I didn’t know if he was stabbed.’
‘Thank God, you know, there are good people,’ Harris told the outlet. ‘And maybe they’re mixed up with some people that aren’t so nice. And they just saw a human being in need and brought me back safely.’
Harris spent three days at hospital recovering from the attack.
Doctors told Harris he suffered a brain injury, broken teeth, and swelling and bruising to the face, with the savagely beaten man requiring many stitches.
‘The surgeon said he stopped counting at a hundred stitches, but a lot of them are inside my mouth,’ Harris said.
The violent beatdown comes off the back of Harris having served multiple years on deployment overseas.
Unabated and ongoing violence in Philadelphia
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Nevertheless his tours were uneventful compared to his walk last weekend.
‘I did a year in a war zone in Iraq, did two years in Ukraine, and would not have expected this to happen in my own neighborhood,’ the shocked Philadelphia resident said.
The retired commander had adopted Nora from Ukraine.
Harris and Hurchick have complained to Philadelphia officials multiple times about the large gatherings that happen at the park, but nothing has been done about it, according to the outlet.
‘It’s going to take a murder for this to stop,’ Hurchick said. And even then, the gangbanger violence might just continue as it does most days of the week in Philly.
