“Pleading for My Life Saying ‘Listen I’m Sorry I’ve Got Kids I’ve Got a Family'” Man Explains Assault in Dilworth

Neal Johnson says he was at the wrong place at the wrong time just around midnight on Friday

DILWORTH, Minn. — After a Dilworth man says he was beaten to unconsciousness, police are trying to find two suspects.

KVRR’s Jessie Cohen tells us how the man climbed his way out of a ditch and made it home in our “lead story”.

Neal Johnson says he was at the wrong place at the wrong time just around midnight on Friday.

“I recently have some bladder problems. I just had to go where I was at in the location and I thought I’d pull around in back of Pizza Ranch area right in there and go to the bathroom real quick,” Johnson said.

That’s when he noticed a man and a woman having sex.

Johnson, says he didn’t want trouble, tried to walk away.

“He continued to follow me to my car and then just as I was reaching in to put my keys in like this I got hit on this side and I’m not sure if it was with his hand or if he had a brick or what he had I got hit it was pretty hard I’m pretty sure that knocked me out right there,” Johnson said.

Johnson says he begged for his life and for his family while the person beat him and tried to drown him in a slough.

“I remember being in there with the water up to here and then trying to climb out and I’d lose consciousness and then wake up again and try and scrape and claw my way up out of there,” Johnson said.

Starting at 1 am, Neal says he was going in and out of consciousness to climb out of the ditch and get himself to his car but by the time that actually happened it was around 6 am.

When he finally got home early Saturday morning, his wife immediately brought him to Sanford.

“After she sent me the pictures a few hours later, my heart hit the ground, I couldn’t believe that he was beaten this bad,” Richard Carrillo said, Johnson’s stepson.

With a dislocated jaw, nine stiches above his left eye, a deviated septum, and a cracked eye socket, his family just wants answers

“He couldn’t talk. He could barely talk now so I mean this is the kind of. The person that did this was an animal,” Carrillo said.

The Dilworth Police Department has a detective on the case and Carrillo says they may have a possible lead or two.

But for now, they are waiting for surveillance video to catch the suspects.

“But I am going to handle it the right way. I am going to make sure the police department does their job. I’m going to keep on it. I’m going to keep going until I find the person and bring them to justice,” Carrillo said.

As Johnson awaits surgery for his cracked eye socket, he thinks about how others should handle similar situations.

“When you are in your car and happen to see somebody over there that doesn’t look right don’t get out and talk to them,” Johnson said.

And his family wants to find the people that did this.

“Nobody deserves to get beaten as bad as this man got beaten,” Carrillo said.

The family has put together a fund to pay for Neale Johnson’s medical bills here.