Josh Cooper doesn’t remember much from Sunday night when he was beaten unconscious by a group of males while walking to work in east Vancouver.
“To tell you the truth, it felt like a dream,” the 20-year-old said. “The last thing I remember is me begging them to stop.”
Every Sunday evening, Cooper walks to catch two buses before finishing the rest of his journey on foot to the Wal-Mart on Southeast 192nd Avenue.
He was walking in the 2500 block of Northeast 110th Avenue shortly after 8 p.m. when he heard loud music coming from a parked car. He took out his headphones and noticed a dark-colored vehicle with a male standing outside talking to four occupants.
As he got closer, the male approached him and asked if he had marijuana. Cooper told him no. His answer was met with a hostile remark, he said, and then the rest of the group — all described as white males in their 20s — got out of the vehicle.
Cooper knew he was in danger, he said, so he started to run. He only made it about 5 feet, however. He was hit in the head and body by what felt like several people, and knocked to the ground.
He is unsure of how long he was unconscious, likely up to 30 minutes, he said. But what Cooper next recalls is washing the blood off of his face at a gas station restroom around the corner. He doesn’t know how he got there, but he assumes he walked.
The reality of what happened hadn’t set in yet, Cooper said, and all he could think about was getting to work so he kept walking. He soon realized his cellphone had been stolen during the attack. That’s when he asked a passerby for the time. Cooper said the passerby encouraged him to call 911, which he did from the Fred Meyer on Southeast Mill Plain Boulevard. A Vancouver police officer picked him up.
Cooper refused medical attention so the officer took his report, retraced his steps and then took him home. A family member later picked up Cooper and took him to a hospital. Because of concerns over potential brain bleeding, he was taken to Oregon Health & Science University for observation. Cooper suffered a concussion and a broken nose, in addition to scrapes and bruises.
“I’m hanging in there. I’m recovering. I’m not dead,” Cooper said, though he can’t help but to replay the attack in his head.
Detectives with the Vancouver Police Department’s major crimes unit are investigating. Police spokeswoman Kim Kapp said Friday that there have been no arrests, and no suspects have been identified.
Cooper’s sister-in-law, Bri Bauder, 25, said they were able to track his phone to a residence near the attack. But the trail appears to have gone cold.
“It’s a neighborhood. There’s got to be someone who saw weird kids blasting music right outside their door,” Bauder said.
In addition to his cellphone, the suspects took a drawstring backpack that had some personal items in it, Cooper said. He didn’t get a good look at the group, but he thinks the first male who approached him had longer hair and was wearing a hat or beanie.
“It makes me not want to walk places anymore,” he said. “I hope they get caught. If anyone knows who it was, let us know. I wouldn’t want this happening to someone else.”
