Police on Vancouver Island are hunting for two suspects after a man in a wheelchair was beaten so viciously during a robbery that he had to be hospitalized.
Sixty-year-old victim Robert Benson, who suffers from a spinal disease, was smoking a cigarette outside his care home in Nanaimo Friday night when two men approached him and demanded he hand over his money.
"I was completely tossed out of the wheelchair, which landed on top of me," Benson told CTV News.
"They were using a short-type club, and because I wouldn't give them my wallet, the beatings started."
He says they hit and kicked him in the head and torso, and only backed off when he told them his wallet was in his jacket. They took $160 in cash and left.
"I really thought that they were going to kill me," he said.
Benson wheeled himself back to his room. He was too embarrassed to report the brutal attack for two days, but when staff at the home saw the bruises and scrapes all over his face and head, they took him to hospital.
"My eyes looked like they'd gone a round with Mike Tyson," he said.
He told investigators that his attackers were two large aboriginal men: one had long, dark hair and the other wore a bandana around his neck.
"If they're caught I just hope and pray that they've learned a lesson, that this will never, ever happen to anyone again," Benson said.
"This should not be tolerated. We should all love one another and help each other as citizens."
Anyone with information about the robbery and assault is asked to call Nanaimo RCMP.
