WASHINGTON — Two Marines were brutally attacked over the weekend in separate incidents in the nation's capital.
One attack happened Friday night at a McDonald's when a group of teens assaulted and robbed a veteran Marine.
A second Marine, 35-year-old Michael Schroeder, was left for dead after a being attacked in Northwest D.C. later that night, according to his family.
Metropolitan Police Department officers found Schroeder in the Glover Park neighborhood. He was face down between two cars and bleeding from head injuries.
Police were summoned to the scene by a father and son, who called 911 after seeing Schroeder on the pavement as they drove past him in a taxi.
“It’s an angel whoever found him, and I’m very, very grateful,” said the Marine's mother, Diedre Schroeder. She cried recounting the phone call. Her son was missing all day until his twin brother found him at George Washington Hospital.
Michael Schroeder suffered a fractured skull and a severe concussion.
He could hardly speak, according to his family.
“Michael could’ve died that night,” Deidre Schroeder said.
Schroeder, an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, said he was out drinking with friends Friday night and separated from them to go home.
“I wasn’t trying to find trouble. I was actually just trying to walk home,” said Michael Schroeder in a softened voice.
Surveillance camera footage shows Schroeder near Wisconsin Avenue N.W. He cuts through a parking lot to 37th Street N.W. at around 1:34 a.m. Saturday.
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.
According to the police report, officers who found Schroeder said he was cold, appeared highly intoxicated and was bleeding from the back of his head.
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 being attacked 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," he said.
“It’s hard for me to understand because there would’ve been zero reason for it,” said Michael Schroeder. The Marine said he still has his cellphone and identification, but $40-$60 is missing from his pocket.
“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.,” said Deidre Schroeder.
Police said they have not identified a suspect and do not believe Schroeder's attack is related to other assaults in the District. They were seeking at least four people in connection with the assault and robbery of Christopher Marquez, a Bronze Star recipient.
Marquez told police he was assaulted Friday around 10:30 p.m. while eating at a McDonald's, according to a police report.
Marquez said he believes the attack was racially motivated. He remembers being accosted at the McDonald's in Washington's Chinatown neighborhood by five people between 16 and 21 years old. Most were men or boys. One may have been female.
“The kids were asking me if I think that black lives mattered,” Marquez said on Monday. “I was ignoring them, just because I felt intimidated. I felt how they approached me, it was very hostile. I felt they were really trying to intimidate me and just trying to start a confrontation with me.”
Contributing: Jeff Schogol, Marine Corps Times. Follow Stephanie Ramirez on Twitter: @RamirezReports
