A re­tired sol­dier was in­jured af­ter be­ing at­tacked by a rel­a­tive.

Po­lice said Joseph Git­tens, 63, a re­tired sol­dier from South Oropouche, was as­sault­ed while vis­it­ing his prop­er­ty in Pe­nal.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Git­tens was seat­ed in his ve­hi­cle parked in an open garage on the premis­es when a rel­a­tive, who did not have per­mis­sion to en­ter the prop­er­ty, gained ac­cess through an open­ing in a chain-link fence. The rel­a­tive briefly left but soon re­turned car­ry­ing a piece of iron and be­gan speak­ing loud­ly.

The rel­a­tive be­came in­volved in a heat­ed ar­gu­ment with a ten­ant of the prop­er­ty and threw stones at her. Git­tens ex­it­ed his ve­hi­cle and ap­proached the rel­a­tive, re­quest­ing that he leave the premis­es.

The rel­a­tive then struck Git­tens with a stone on the right side of his face and pro­ceed­ed to beat him with the piece of iron.

The as­sailant then ran off. Git­tens, with as­sis­tance from the ten­ant, was tak­en by am­bu­lance to the Siparia Health Fa­cil­i­ty, then trans­ferred to Point Fortin Hos­pi­tal for a CT scan, and sub­se­quent­ly moved to San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal where he re­mains in sta­ble con­di­tion.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.