Elderly veteran, wife violently attacked in home after buying lottery tickets at store
PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia police are searching for the suspect who followed an 86-year-old man home and attacked him.
It began around 2:30 p.m. on April 19th at a store on 60th and Market streets in West Philadelphia.
Surveillance video shows the suspect spot the victim, William Ravenell, paying for lottery tickets.
The suspect leaves and paces on the sidewalk until Ravenell exits, before following him home.
"This fellow, he asked me for a couple dollars and, I said, 'I don't have it,' so I kept walking. I came in the house. I brought the scratch-offs with me, and then the same fellow came in and knocked me down on the couch and kept punching, punching, punching," Ravenell told Action News Monday night.
The Korean War vet suddenly found himself ambushed in his living room, with his jaw repeatedly punched.
His 83-year-old wife Evelyn then darted up from the basement.
"She was going to get some help, but he pushed her away," Ravenell said.
"He didn't need to take that kind of force and to go a step further and grab the wife by her throat and throw her down. It is just unacceptable," Philadelphia Police Lt. Johnny Walker said.
The suspect made off with $50 to $60 worth of lottery tickets,
Police believe the man frequents the area of the store.
Rewatching the surveillance video from the store, Ravenell is certain the man seen on camera is the one who made him his prey.
"I'm very bitter with him. He has no business being on the street," Ravenell said.
Ravenell says other than the pain his jaw, he's doing much better.
Anyone with information is asked to call police.
