HOUSTON — Houston police are asking for help locating the suspect drawn by a sketch artist who is accused of beating a man who was walking his dog on April 6, in the Montrose/River Oaks area.
One week after the man was attacked, a couple walking in the same area was also injured after they were beaten during an unprovoked attack.
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The man who was beaten in the first attack said he was sure the suspect was the same in both cases.
“I’ve lived in this neighborhood 24 years, you know?” Greg Audel said. “There is no place safer in my mind than my neighborhood.”
On Saturday, April 6, at 11:15 a.m., Audel was walking his dog near the intersection of West Gray and Waugh Drive.
Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a man walking toward him.
“All of a sudden he was right next to me,” Audel said. “And just said, ‘Do you want to get beat up today?’”
Before Audel could even process the question, he said, “He clocked me.” Seconds later, Audel was on his back, with the attacker straddling him, punching him repeatedly in the face. Audel said he managed to hit the suspect with his cane and got back on his feet and over to the other side of the street. The attacker followed him.
“As soon as I made it here, he was on top of me again and he tackled me again,” Audel said. “And then he was really enraged and he was bashing my head into the concrete.”
While the beating continued, Audel said he prayed and tried to burn the details of the attacker’s face into his memory.
“I was focused and I was staring at his face because I wanted to be able to memorize it and so that’s what I was doing,” Audel said. “You have to have a plan. You don’t ever want this to happen, but it might.”
Audel gave his description of the suspect to a sketch artist, who created an image that was released by police in an attempt to catch the attacker. Audel said strangers helped save his life.
“I tell people the story is one bad guy, five heroes,” Audel said. “If they hadn’t stopped, I absolutely think I would’ve been killed.”
The drivers and passengers in two separate cars saw what was happening and pulled over and got out, scaring away the attacker. Audel, who was badly beaten and bloodied, was taken to the hospital in an ambulance.
“The physical injuries, you know, heal. This is going to take longer,” Audel said while pointing to his head.
What pains him as much as the physical injuries he endured is the fact that a similar attack happened just one week after he was beaten. A 77-year-old man and his wife were leaving Café Ginger the following Saturday. Houston police said the man seen in still images from surveillance video attacked and brutally beat the couple.
KHOU 11 showed Audel those photos for the first time. He said he was certain it was the same man who attacked him.
“For the first few weeks, I saw him a half block away all the time, or I could feel him a half block behind me,” he said.
Audel said he is making progress after the attack, both physically and mentally but he won’t truly be able to rest easy until the suspect is caught.
“I want to get this guy arrested,” Audel said. “I want him off the street. I don’t want him to hurt anyone else.”
Houston police said Tuesday they believe the attacks are related. Security guards said they saw the suspect in the same area last week and reported the sighting to police.