Philadelphia Navy veteran Scott Harris brutally attacked walking dog near park

A retired Navy commander was brutally beaten, robbed, and left with a brain injury and at least 100 stitches after he was attacked while walking with his dog near a Philadelphia park last week.

Scott Harris, 62, says he was walking his dog Nora around 11:30 Saturday night 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.

Harris was attacked from behind by at least one person as he walked past the crowd, who knocked the man unconscious and stole his wallet, police said according to NBC 10.

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.”

A security camera outside Harris’ apartment captured a group of good samaritans walking Harris and Nora back to his home after the attack, where his partner was waiting for him.

“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 said 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 later treated at a local hospital, where he spent three days recovering from the attack.

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 2 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 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.”