A former Marine who was famously photographed carrying a wounded comrade from Fallujah’s “Hell House” in 2004 was assaulted and robbed by a group of people in Washington.
Christopher Marquez told police that the assault occurred Friday night in a McDonald’s near Chinatown. The attackers stole his wallet, identification, credit cards, debit cards and about $400 in cash, according to a report by the Daily Caller News Foundation.
Marquez said the group of 16- to 21-year-old attackers approached him and asked him if he thought black lives mattered. He said he just ignored them “because I felt intimidated.”
The group of attackers allegedly hit Marquez in the back of the head as he was leaving, knocking him unconscious, and emptied his pockets. When he woke up, Marquez spent several hours at the hospital being examined for head trauma and was told to get follow-up care at a Department of Veterans Affairs facility.
The former Marine told Marine Corps Times he was angry that he was attacked at home by people he risked his life defending.
“We’re there to protect our country so that people … don’t have to be scared of getting killed or being attacked,” he said.
Marquez served in the Marine Corps from 2003 to 2011. He was awarded the Bronze Star with “V” for actions in Fallujah when he refused to leave a mortally wounded Marine even under heavy gun fire, Marine Corps Times reported.
The former Marine was also photographed during that deployment helping carry then-1st Sgt. Bradley Kasal out of a house in Fallujah. Kasal was wounded and later received the Navy Cross. The photograph was later turned into a statue at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and Camp Pendleton, Calif., according to the Marine Corps Times report.
