On the same day we told you the story of the decorated Marine vet, Christopher Marquez, being beaten outside of a Washington, D.C. McDonalds, another Marine was was found beaten and left for dead in the nation’s capital.
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His name is Michael Schroeder, a 35-year-old Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran. Here is how the February 12th incident occurred according to Washington’s WUSA 9 News:
Temperatures had dropped down to the teens in weather reports. Laying in the cold, dragged between two cars, face-down, head bashed-in and cash missing is how Schroeder’s family says police found him in the Glover Park neighborhood. Thankfully a dad and son driving by in a taxi saw Schroeder and called the authorities.
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A D.C police report says two officers responded to a 911 call and found Schroeder laying face-down between town cars. The report says he felt very cold, appeared highly intoxicated and was bleeding from the back of his head.
Surveillance video shows Schroeder walking through a parking lot at around 1:34 a.m. Police say they responded at around 2:47 a.m. but that same surveillance footage shows the ambulance arrival time as about an hour later, at around 3:47 a.m. The family believes the actual emergency response time was 3:47 a.m.
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The Marine told WUSA9 he still has his cell phone and I.D. but anywhere from $40 to $60 is missing from his pocket.
Schroeder says his last memory was leaving the bar and turning for home. The next thing he saw were ambulance lights. In this upscale and mostly residential part of Washington, mere blocks from the Vice President’s residence at the Naval Observatory, attacks like these are extremely rare.
Schroeder’s mother Diedre, was an emotional wreck – unaware of her son’s whereabouts all day until Michael’s twin brother and fellow Marine found him at George Washington Hospital.
It’s an angel whoever found him and I’m very, very grateful… Michael could’ve been dead that night. This isn’t funny. This isn’t a joke. This is a very serious matter and this is in a lovely neighborhood of Washington D.C.
Schroder’s brother is upset about how the case is being handled thus far, saying:
This will probably go down as an assault or attempted robbery but when you hit somebody in the head and that hard enough to fracture their skull with something harder than a metal or fist, it should be looked at as attempted murder.
Authorities do not believe the two assaults on Marines are connected. However, what seems strange is the lack of aggressive prosecution in both cases. Marquez’s attackers being denied a hate crime and now the potential that Schroeder’s assailants may get away with only an assault charge.
Our veterans deserve better! What do you make of these cases? Sound off in the comments below!
