A former Navy commander who safely completed tours of Iraq and Ukraine nearly died in a savage attack outside his home in crime-ridden Philadelphia.
Scott Harris, 62, was left with 100 stitches, broken teeth and a brain injury after taking his dog Nora for a Saturday evening walk in his Brewerytown neighborhood.
He was attacked from behind by someone who knocked him unconscious as he walked past a local park where hundreds of people had gathered for a noisy late-night party.
'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,' he told Fox 29.
'I did a year in a war zone in Iraq, did two years in Ukraine, and would not have expected this to happen in my own neighborhood.'
Scott Harris spent three days in hospital and received more than 100 stitches after the attack just yards from his home
Harris was walking his dog, Nora, who he adopted while in Ukraine, when the attack occurred
Dozens had gathered for a 'flashmob' party at the park in Brewerytown, Philadelphia
Crime in the City of Brotherly Love was up 17.7 percent in July compared to the same time last year, according to stats compiled by the Philadelphia Police Department.
And robbery was up 11 per cent last year in a city now blighted by a drug epidemic that has seen large parts of the town center overrun by users.
Harris had repeatedly complained to police about 'flashmob' parties happening at the park, but nothing has been done about it.
'It's the result of a problem that's been here for a while,' he told Dailymail.com
'The police said our hands are tied, we're not allowed to interfere for fear of escalation.
'So they see a party they come down here and they just direct traffic, it's not right.'
Security camera footage caught the wounded soldier and his dog being helped to his home of four years by some Good Samaritans who may have saved his life.
He currently works for the Naval Sea Systems Command
'They brought him back, otherwise I don't know what would have happened,' his partner 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.
'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.'
The city's Democratic District Attorney Larry Krasner, a self-described 'progressive prosecutor', faced impeachment last year for 'dereliction of duty', but he remains in office after his trial was indefinitely postponed.
Harris says police have been left struggling to do their job under the liberal prosecutor.
'They arrested a guy who was selling art on the sidewalk in a hoity toity area,' he said.
'I know it's a crime but it's the mayor, it's the DA, if you have limited resources why are you picking on a guy selling art?'
Harris spent three days recovering from the attack at a local hospital.
He suffered a brain trauma, broken teeth, cuts and swelling in the attack
District Attorney of Philadelphia Larry Krasner faced impeachment last year for 'dereliction of duty'
Harris's partner Joseph Hurchick fears it will take a murder to stop the violence
Doctors told him he suffered a brain injury, broken teeth, swelling and bruising to the face, along with dozens of stitches.
'The surgeon said he stopped counting at a hundred stitches, but a lot of them are inside my mouth,' he added.
'Sadly, only thing I really cared about in that wallet was my mother's driver's license.
'She passed about 10 years ago. That's kind of how I kept her close and now I don't even have that.'
The veteran who now works for the Naval Sea Systems Command helped rebuild Iraq during his year there in 2010 as part of the US Army Corps of Engineers.
But even a deployment to the notorious city of Fallujah did not prepare him for the violence on his own doorstep.
'This is what happens when something is not policed,' Hurchick said.
'It could have been worse, it's going to take a murder for this to stop.'
The most severe incident this year was on July 3 when a gunman opened fire on families enjoying festivities in the neighborhood of Kingsessing.
Kimbrady Carriker, 40, was arrested shortly after the killing spree that claimed the lives of five men between the ages of 15 and 59 on the eve of the Fourth of July holiday.
Overall crime in the City of Brotherly Love is up 17. 7 percent compared to the same time last year, according to stats compiled by the Philadelphia Police Department
Security camera video shows Kimbrady Carriker, 40, walking down the street calmly while firing at people before responding officers chased the suspect as he continued to fire
CCTV footage caught the moment helpers brought him barely conscious back to his home of four years
The picture, which went viral on Reddit and Twitter in November, shows a gunman sticking up and pointing his weapon to the head of a man waiting on the subway in Philadelphia
The victims were identified as Lashyd Merritt, 20; Dymir Stanton, 29; Ralph Moralis, 59; Daujan Brown, 15; Joseph Wamah, Jr., 31.
A video surfaced in November of a gunman holding a weapon to a subway passenger's head.
The disturbing video, which went viral online, showed the man wearing a black hoodie, stick up and point his gun to the head of a man waiting for a train on the platform.
The man, sitting on the ground in a white hat as he took a sip from a water bottle, seemed to shrug off the potential threat as a bystander recorded the incident.
Spokespersons for both the police and transit said no arrests had been made and the event was still under investigation.
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