Search is on for man who damaged disabled vet's car following confrontation, police say

HENRY COUNTY, Ga. — Police are searching for a man who doused a disabled veteran's car with an unknown substance after the veteran parked in a handicapped parking space.

The 23-year Army combat veteran told Channel 2’s Tom Jones that the man was angry that he parked there, even though he has a disabled veteran handicap tag.

"You don't expect this when you come home," said the vet, who asked us to only use his last name, Rover.

He said he couldn't believe someone doused his car with a substance in a Kroger parking lot. The substance damaged his door and door handle.

"The whole clear coat on my vehicle is gone," Rover said. "I explained to him, ‘You don't understand what I've been through to get to this point.’"

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Rover told Jones that he suffered several internal injuries during his many tours of duty fighting for this country.

"I have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), obviously. I have a traumatic brain injury," Rover said.

He also has to wear circulation hose and has a filter in his chest to stop blood clots.

Rover said the man did not know any of that when he confronted him inside the supermarket on East Lake Parkway on March 1.

"He said you don't look so handicapped to me now," Rover told Jones.

There was a brief confrontation, and the man walked out of the store.

When Rover got to his car, that's when he saw the damage.

“He intentionally put it on the door handle, so I couldn't touch it," Rover said.

Henry County police have put out a “be on the lookout” alert for the suspect. They want the man to come forward to face charges.

"Right now, it would be criminal trespass,” said Sgt. John Davis, with the Henry County Police Department.

Rover wants to remind people not all injuries are external.

"You can't put us all in a box. That was malicious. It was uncalled for," he said.

Rover said a store manager looked at surveillance video and saw it showed the man dousing his car.

He said he would have gone off on the man, but he says his counseling for PTSD and his 8-year-old daughter helped keep him calm.

Cox Media Group