Vancouver man survives attack at Esther Short Park

VANCOUVER, Wash. (KPTV) - Darlle Bullock was in the right place at the right time to help Tuesday afternoon.

“I’ll never say I wish I hadn’t done it,” he said.

As he was checking in on homeless friends at Esther Short Park, he saw someone else he needed to help.

“I stopped and I looked, and I saw these young men pushing on this old man who had to be every bit of 70 years old,” Bullock said.

Witnesses said around 4:30 p.m., an elderly volunteer saw five teenagers skateboarding on the gazebo, who were moving a sign saying the gazebo was closed to the public.

Witnesses and Vancouver Police said the volunteer asked them not to skate there and to leave the board behind when the teenagers began yelling. That’s when Bullock stepped in to try and deescalate the situation, but it got violent.

“Their attention wasn’t on that man anymore. That was key to me,” he said. “They said several times, ‘we’re going to hospitalize you with these skateboards’, and I said good luck with that.”

He said they punched him several times and used their skateboards to hit him too. So, a woman at the park, who wants to remain anonymous, ran to his side with a first aid kit until help arrived.

“Even from far away I noticed there was far too much blood to be in a park and I saw that it was a gentleman being routinely attacked by a group of five teenagers from pretty much all sides,” she said. “I ran to grab my phone and call 911 as other people videotaped and started to provide medical care because they hit him pretty hard in the back of the head cracking his skull open.”

Now comes Bullock’s road to recovery. He has seven staples in his head and can’t move his left arm.

“I’ll handle it in the end. I’m a trauma specialist so therefore I know how to deal with this, how to cope. I know how to use my coping mechanisms and have a good group of people to help me,” he said.

So far, Vancouver Police say no arrests have been made.

If you’d like to help Darlle with his medical bills, you can donate to his GoFundMe.

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