Disabled vet and hospice patient stabbed in St. Louis during broad daylight

Last week, a 53-year-old disabled veteran who is also suffering from terminal cancer was attacked and robbed by several black men on the streets of St. Louis.

FOX 2 St. Louis reported that Marion McNeely was attacked during broad daylight in an alley off the 3500 block of Miami in South St. Louis.  McNeely was in his wheelchair when he was robbed.

St. Louis City Police are looking for a teal Pontiac, the vehicle from which the suspects pulled up to McNeely in.  According to the veteran, several black men exited the car and walked up to him.  They reached into his front shirt pocket, removed his money and then cut him with a knife when he raised it to protect himself.

Before leaving the scene, the suspects pushed McNeely from his wheelchair and to the ground.  They then fled the scene in the vehicle they arrived in.

After they left, McNeely was able to find the willpower to pull himself back into his wheelchair and call 911.  He was distraught over the entire incident, especially since he had just cashed his monthly disability check.  The check is his primary source of income.

“He was attacked, robbed and stabbed.  When something like this happens to a veteran, it breaks my heart,” said Jacqueline Ingoldsby, an AMVETS Veterans Service Officer.

McNeely was transported to a nearby hospital for treatment of the stab wounds on his arm.  He was released, expected to recover from his wounds.

Richard Hogan, National Service Officer for AMVETS, was outraged by the incident.  “You have a veteran in a wheelchair, he’s sick with cancer.  He’s just trying to get along day by day and he was attacked from behind.  I don’t know anything lower than that,” he said.  “I thought the whole thing was a cowardly act.  It just broke my heart to hear it.”

As for how McNeely found the strength to get help, Robert Quick, President for the National AMVETS riders, said, “I found that the service he had within him in the United States Navy kicked in and gave him the strength that the everyday citizen does not have.”

Hogan couldn’t understand how someone could rob from anyone, let alone a veteran who served the citizens of the U.S.  “They are the backbone of America.  They are special people,” he said.

For anyone wishing to help Navy Veteran Marion McNeely, please contact AMVETS at www.amvets.org.