SAN DIEGO -- Two brazen home invaders who crawled under a cracked garage door and nearly beat a 65-year-old Encanto homeowner to death earlier this month are still on the loose.
“It’s amazing that actually two people were able to crawl under and do all this,” said R.J. Elliott, the victim’s son.
R.J. said his father, Roberto Elliott, a retired refrigeration engineer for Kaiser, often spent time in his garage.
“He’s pretty much just like a hard-working guy, like he likes to go out and work. Even though he’s retired now he will go out and do jobs maybe once or twice a week.”
Elliott was in his garage on the afternoon of Aug. 4 when two male suspects squeezed under the garage and beat him bloody. Dre Wilson, a neighbor, saw the suspects flee and heard Roberto crying for help.
He was transported to Scripps Mercy Hospital in Hillcrest. Doctors were forced to induce him into a coma because of the swelling in his brain.
“He was in a coma,” R.J. said. “His brain was swelling. They told me his face, you couldn’t even recognize him it was so swollen.”
The attackers stole Elliott’s truck keys, phone and wallet.
“He had a lot of fractures in his face,” R.J. said. “There was so much that they needed a special doctor to work on it.”
Wilson was able to snap a quick picture of the suspect’s car, described as a black Honda Accord with steel wheels. Detailed suspect descriptions were not available and it was unclear if a weapon was used in the attack
“If you wanted money or something, why couldn’t you just tell him give me your money and just leave? Why did you have to go this far? He’s an old guy, if you see him, you could tell if you tried to fight him he wouldn’t try to fight back.”
Anyone with information on the attack is urged to call the San Diego police Robbery Unit at 619-531-2299 or Crime Stoppers at 888-580-TIPS.
