News/Commentary

Retired Navy commander requires 100 stitches after savage attack in Philly while walking his dog

August 31, 2023 | | Print Article

Retired Navy commander Scott Harris was left with a brain injury and at least 100 stitches after he took his dog for a walk near a Philadelphia park last week.

Harris, 62, was taking his pal Nora for an 11:30 p.m. walk in the City of Brotherly Love’s Brewerytown neighborhood on Saturday when he came across a street party.

“There was a large party going on across the street, that in hindsight I probably shouldn’t have walked near,” Harris told Fox 29, “and the next thing I remember, I’m in the emergency room because I kind of just blacked out after that.”

(Video: YouTube)

Police say Harris was attacked and knocked unconscious by at least one person who then stole his wallet, NBC 10 reports.

Harris said he has no memory of the attack, and the thief didn’t score any cash from his wallet. Instead, the thug stole something far more valuable from the vet, who spent years in the wartorn countries of Iraq and Ukraine.

“Sadly, [the] only thing I really cared about in that wallet was my mother’s driver’s license,” he told NBC 10. “She passed about 10 years ago. That’s kind of how I kept her close and now I don’t even have that.”

Following the brutal attack, a group of good Samaritans walked the injured Harris and Nora, who was adopted from Ukraine, back to his home.

“They brought him back, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened,” Joseph Hurchick, Harris’s partner, 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 said. “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.”

(Video: YouTube)

The couple said they have notified Philadelphia officials on multiple occasions about the park’s frequent large gatherings. Their complaints, they told Fox 29, have thus far gone unanswered.

“This is what happens when something is not policed, it could have been worse,” said Hurchick. “It’s going to take a murder for this to stop.”

As a result of the beating, Harris suffered, in addition to broken teeth, a swollen and bruised face, a brain injury, and more stitches than the doctors cared to count.

“The surgeon said he stopped counting at a hundred stitches,” Harris said, “but a lot of them are inside my mouth.”

The veteran spent three days in the hospital recovering from his injuries. He can’t believe, after his time in the military, that he would be injured at home.

“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,” Harris said.

But, as BizPac Review has reported, Philadelphia’s progressive policies have left parts of the city looking like a scene out of “The Walking Dead.”

The city’s drug problem has reportedly spiraled so far out of control that Philadelphia businesses have been forced to “booby trap” their entrances to keep the addicts “off of their stoops.”

Homeless people hopped up on the potent drug  Xylazine, more commonly known as “tranq,” roam the city’s devastated Kensington neighborhood.

“The businesses don’t last long,” Frank Rodriguez, a former drug dealer and addict-turned-businessman said. “When they are put in the community, the community tends to tear them down.”

“I couldn’t imagine the customers to my business having to come through all this chaos just to support my business,” Rodriguez said. “Who wants to come down to this neighborhood … to shop here? Who wants to do that? Nobody.”

 

Melissa Fine
Latest posts by Melissa Fine (see all)

Comment

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, profanity, vulgarity, doxing, or discourteous behavior. If a comment is spam, instead of replying to it please click the ∨ icon below and to the right of that comment. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain fruitful conversation.

Latest Articles