SLT Today
December 12, 2014
Marion McNeely, a hospice patient dying of liver cancer, was attacked and knocked out of his wheelchair in an alley last week, in broad daylight, as he returned home from buying groceries at a Family Dollar store.
McNeely told police that the attacker robbed him of the cash from his monthly disability payment and pulled a knife. He was cut on the forearm when he tried to protect his face, according to a police report.
St. Louis police have no suspects in the afternoon attack Dec. 1 and are investigating it as a robbery-assault. The robber jumped into a teal Pontiac carrying four or five other men, according to McNeely and a police report. The car sped off, going the wrong way down the 3500 block of Miami Street, he said.
McNeely, 53, is a Navy veteran who uses a wheelchair because of nerve damage suffered in a 2006 motorcycle crash. He lives on disability and receives food stamps.
The robber took all the cash he had for the month, McNeely said. He had just cashed out for the month using the debit card tied to his disability payments.
Without that cash, McNeely said, he expects a rent-to-own store will be sending someone any day to retrieve his brown leather recliner because he can’t afford the $87 monthly rent. Even though he has a hospital bed in his small, sparse studio apartment, McNeely said he used that recliner because it’s uncomfortable to spend too much time in bed.