Man faces jail for assault of 92-year-old man

NORRISTOWN >> A Lansdale man is headed to jail after he assaulted a 92-year-old man outside a Norristown gas station after the victim refused to give him money.

Duel Brooks Wright, 30, of the 300 block of East Hancock Street, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court to 11½-to23-months in the county jail after he pleaded guilty to a felony charge of aggravated assault in connection with the Sept. 3, 2018, incident outside the BP Gas Station and McDonald’s Restaurant in the 200 block of West Main Street.

Judge Thomas C. Branca, who accepted a plea agreement in the

case, also ordered Wright to complete three years’ probation following parole, meaning Wright will be under court supervision for about five years.

The judge ordered Wright to report to the jail in Lower Providence on Oct. 9 to begin serving the sentence. Wright is eligible for the jail’s work release program during his incarceration.

An investigation began about 6 p.m. when Norristown police responded to the gas station and restaurant for a report of an assault in progress.

Arriving officers found a 92-year-old man “bleeding from a large laceration above his right eye” and observed the victim also had a large contusion on his head and an abrasion on his knee, according to the criminal complaint filed by Norristown Detective David Mazza and Officer Christopher Smith.

The victim told police that an unknown male struck him in the face with a closed fist and he fell to the ground. The victim was transported to an area hospital for treatment of head, back, leg and arm injuries and was later transferred to a rehabilitation center because he was unable to walk, according to the criminal complaint.

The victim’s daughter told police her father stopped at the gas station to fuel his vehicle when the suspect approached him for money and that when her father refused to hand over money the suspect punched her father and knocked him to the pavement.

The victim’s daughter told police her father led “a very active lifestyle up to the point he was assaulted, that he was planning to go golfing and as a result of the assault he is unable to walk and unable to eat,” according to the arrest affidavit.

Witnesses told police they overheard a verbal exchange between the victim and his attacker, who was asking the victim for his money and the victim “refused to hand over his money,” according to the arrest affidavit. Witnesses observed the suspect punch the victim with a closed fist and flee toward Main Street.

Investigators collected video surveillance footage that recorded the attack and subsequently identified Wright as a suspect.

When investigators interviewed Wright on Sept. 6 he admitted to being at the gas station and the McDonald’s Restaurant.

“Duel Wright told investigators that he had contact with the elderly male outside of the gas station and McDonald’s, that he asked the elderly male for money,” Mazza and Smith wrote in the arrest affidavit. “Duel Wright told investigators that he tripped the elderly male with his leg and the elderly male fell and hit his head on the pavement.”

Other charges of robbery, recklessly endangering another person and simple assault were dismissed against Wright as part of the plea agreement.