Last week, a senior Navy commander was attacked while walking his dog near a park in Philadelphia. He sustained a head injury and required at least 100 stitches.
According to 62-year-old Scott Harris, he and his dog Nora were strolling around the Brewerytown section of the city at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday when they came across a large group of people congregated in a nearby park.
Harris told Fox 29 that he “kind of blacked out” after walking too close to a large party across the street. “In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have walked near that,” he said.
NBC 10 reports that when Harris walked passed the crowd, he was ambushed from behind by at least one guy who knocked him unconscious and grabbed his wallet.
No information on the attacker 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 the outlet. “She passed about 10 years ago. That’s kind of how I kept her close and now I don’t even have that.”
Several bystanders were seen on surveillance footage walking Harris and Nora back to Harris’ apartment after the attack, where his partner was waiting for them.
“They brought him back, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened,” Joseph Hurchick told Fox 29. “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 was taken to a nearby hospital after the incident, where he stayed for three days to get better.
Doctors told Harris he suffered a brain injury, broken teeth, and swelling and bruising to the face, along with many stitches, the outlet said.
“The surgeon said he stopped counting at a hundred stitches, but a lot of them are inside my mouth.”
Harris has served multiple years on deployment overseas, but 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,” he 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.
“This is what happens when something is not policed, it could have been worse,” Hurchick said. “It’s going to take a murder for this to stop.”
