Two Marines were attacked in the nation’s capital earlier this month, though police believe that the two incidents are unrelated.
A veteran Marine was assaulted and robbed by a pair of teenagers at a McDonald’s restaurant in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, according to reports. Local WUSA9 reported Thursday that a second Marine, Michael Schroeder, was attacked on D.C. the same day.
According to his family, Schroeder was found facedown between two cars with money missing in the northwest neighborhood of Glover Park. Two people passing by in a taxi noticed Schroeder and called police.
Schroeder, who was transported to George Washington University Hospital, suffered a fractured skull and a concussion. It remains unclear what happened; Schroeder told the news outlet that the last thing he remembers was walking home.
"I wasn’t trying to find trouble. I was actually just trying to walk home," he said.
According to a police report, Schroeder, who served in Iraq, was found facedown between two town cars. He felt cold, was bleeding from his head, and appeared intoxicated, the report said.
Schroeder’s twin brother, a fellow Marine, said that doctors believe his brother was likely attacked from behind.
"This will probably go down as an assault or attempted robbery but when you hit somebody in the head and hard enough to fracture their skull with something harder than a metal or fist, it should be looked at as attempted murder," he said.
Christopher Marquez, the decorated Marine veteran who was also attacked on Feb. 12, told the Washington Post that he was assaulted by a group of black teenagers in what he believed to be a racially-motivated attack. D.C. police arrested two teenagers in connection with the assault this week.