A 65-year-old has been left wondering whether he will ever see again out of one eye after a callous paintball attack.
Michael Fejes was on his nightly walk in Torrance, California, when he heard a shout coming from a car.
When he turned around, two or three pranksters unloaded a hail of pellets at him, hitting him in the eye, and then laughed at the father before driving away.
The wounds were so bad he had to be rushed to hospital where he had surgery, and is still waiting to see if the vision will return to one of his eyes.
A 65-year-old has been left wondering whether he will ever see again out of one eye after a callous paintball attack
Michael Fejes was on his nightly walk in Torrance, California, when he heard a shout coming from a car. When he turned around, two or three men unloaded a hail of pellets at him, hitting him in the eye, and then laughed at the father before running away
Mr Fejes’ son, Michael Jr, said police had received other reports of paintball attacks in the South Bay area.
Updating concerned relatives and friends on Facebook, he said: ‘He is currently scheduled to undergo surgery to clear up the internal bleeding and any other damage that may have occurred.
‘It is unknown as to how his vision will be affected in the future or what complications may arise due to this senseless attack.
‘At this time, he is unable to see out of that eye and is in incredible pain.’
‘We’re uncertain as to what his vision status will be since the blood is still there.’
This paintball gun was confiscated by the Torrance Police Department after the callous attack
Mr Fejes was seen by Dr Steven Schwartz at the Stein Eye Institute – UCLA, who the family thanked.
They also thanked the Torrance Police Department for investigating the incident.
Michael Jr added: ‘This attack was on a 65-year old man that was going for a walk and he may now lose his vision and have other long-term consequences as a result of this “prank”.
‘The laughs that may come out of this are not worth the damage that it causes.
‘Thank you for reading and please contact us or the Torrance Police Department if you have any information related to the attack.
‘Additionally, if you happen to live near the area of the attack and have CCTV cameras that may have caught any evidence of the vehicle it would be much appreciated if you could review the footage to see if anything could help identify the vehicle or attackers.’
Police told ABC they found three suspects, and recovered several paintballs and a paintball gun.
They were identified as Tyler Walters, 20, of Torrance, Lynn Johnson, 20, of Hawthorne, and Gabriella Semana, 18, of Lomita.