Wife recounts attack on 67-year-old husband in QuikTrip bathroom
One moment, a 67-year-old Wichita man was talking on his cellphone at the QuikTrip at Douglas and Washington. It was about 8:35 Wednesday morning. He stopped to get gas on his way out of town, his wife says.
The next moment, in the men’s bathroom of the usually busy convenience store, a stranger started pounding him on his head with a piece of concrete.
Her husband has survived a skull fracture, bleeding on his brain and a 3-inch gash on the back of his head, the wife said in a phone interview from his hospital room Friday afternoon.
As she talked, he tried to eat his first real, solid meal since coming to the hospital: macaroni and cheese, green beans and meatloaf. He made a point of asking for the meatloaf.
The medical staff has been asking him questions to make sure his brain is working. He correctly answered who is running for president.
He has improved from critical to serious condition and is in his own room and able to get up and down on his own, his wife said.
She asked that their names not be used because the attacker hasn’t been caught. Police have released photos of the suspect.
If there is a lesson in the attack, she said, it’s to be aware of your surroundings.
Her husband is someone who trusts everybody, she said.
He teases waitresses all the time.
Wife of victim
“He’s very friendly, outgoing ... and he teases waitresses all the time. He’s bald-headed and jokes with other bald-headed men. If he sees one, he’ll say to the guy: ‘Hey, you lost your hair.’ Or if a guy has a beard, ‘Hey, where’s your razor?’ He engages people in grocery store lines and in truck stops.”
He is a professional truck driver, and he was on his way out of town for truck parts when he stopped at the convenience store, she said.
He was talking on his phone as he walked into the store, “oblivious to anyone, so it totally took him by surprise.”
The person her husband was talking to on the phone heard “hollering and yelling” and the sound of her husband’s phone dropping and going dead.
She wonders if her husband was a target because he is a smallish, older man.
I can’t believe he kept hitting me and hitting me and hitting me.
Victim of attack
He told his wife: “I can’t believe he kept hitting me and hitting me and hitting me.”
He reflexively put his hands over his head to try to shield against the blows. His hands also took a beating.
“He’s on the mend,” she said, “but it’s going to be a long recovery” because of the bleeding on his brain, maybe six to eight weeks.
“And if a truck driver doesn’t work, he doesn’t get paid,” she said.
If she could tell the attacker something, it might be: “Apparently, you have issues. So get help. Taking on strangers for no reason other than theft. …”
According to police, the attacker took her husband’s wallet.
Her husband doesn’t carry cash. “So the guy got basically nothing for this attack,” she said.
Meanwhile, her husband keeps asking her, “Why did this happen to me?”
Tim Potter: 316-268-6684, @terporter
This story was originally published April 29, 2016 at 6:33 PM with the headline "Wife recounts attack on 67-year-old husband in QuikTrip bathroom."