2nd Marine Knocked Out, Left For Dead in DC

By now you have probably heard of Chris Marquez, the decorated Marine vet who was brutally assaulted by Black Lives Matter supporters outside of a McDonald’s in Washington DC, on February 12. If not, you can read about it here.  Two of the thugs have been arrested for that assault. 

What most people don’t know is that another Marine was also viciously attacked on the same night in another part of the city. This case is even worse than the other, and it happened in a DC neighborhood that is considered upscale and safe.

Well it wasn’t safe for 35-year-old Michael Schroeder, who was attacked from behind, robbed, and left for dead for over an hour in frigid temperatures.

Via 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.

Unfortunately, because Schroeder was cold-cocked from behind and instantly knocked out, he has no description of his assailant(s). Surveillance cameras apparently were not able to catch the assault.

 

“I wasn’t trying to find trouble. I was actually just trying to walk home,”  Schroeder told WUSA.

That’s the last thing Schroeder, an Operation Iraqi Freedom Marine, says he remembers. He was out drinking with friends that night and separated to go home. In nearby surveillance cameras, you see Schroeder near Wisconsin Avenue NW before 2 a.m. He cuts through a parking lot to 37th Street NW, but after he turns the next thing he remembers is ambulance lights.

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.

Schroeder’s twin brother, who is also a Marine, believes Michael laid there for at least an hour and said that, according to doctors, his injuries are consistent with someone attacking from behind.

“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.”

 

A GoFundMe page was created to help Schroeder pay for his medical expenses which will include months of physical, occupational, and speech therapies in order to gain back what was taken from him in this senseless attack.  Any extra money, the family tells  WUSA9 “will go to the Recon and Sniper Foundation, a veteran non-profit.”

A GoFundMe account has been set up for Marquez, if you would like to make a donation click here.

Kudos to WUSA 9 News for covering this story. Hit the link if you want to see the interview with Schroeder and members of his family.