"We don't want his life defined by his death:" Family remembers 79-year-old veteran killed in road rage attack
FARIBAULT, Minn. -- Prosecutors call it a "brutal, unprovoked, and irrational" attack. Investigators said a driver repeatedly punched 79-year-old Larry Myers near Northfield last month in a case of road rage. The decorated Vietnam veteran died the following week.
"He was very proud of his service," his daughter, Jennifer Murphy, said.
Murphy said her father was suffering health issues from the Vietnam war and was battling cancer. On the morning of his attack, she said he was on his way to a dialysis appointment.
"He was fighting. That would be the best way to put it. He wasn't just giving up, he was fighting," Murphy said.
On June 27, police said he was hit by a driver of a truck trying to pass him just south of Northfield. According to the criminal complaint, when they reached an intersection, 52-year-old Leslie Sanders got out of his moving truck and punched Myers repeatedly through his window. Witnesses told investigators they didn't see Myers strike back.
"I almost got sick. It was just disgusting what happened," his son, Wayne Myers, said.
With severe brain injuries, Myers died a week and half later on July 6.
"We don't want his life defined by his death," Murphy said.
His children instead are remembering how he lived.
"A lot of my memories of my dad involve laughter, all the motorcycle trips, dune buggy trips," Myers said.
"My brother and I will look back at my childhood and say, we had a really great childhood," Murphy said.
She said he made an impact wherever he was through his involvement in veteran and youth organizations.
"That was a big part of his life, always being involved in the community he lived in," Murphy said.
Myers said his father's ashes will be spread off of the Virgin Islands where he currently lives alongside his beloved cat who recently passed.
In a statement, Rice County Attorney John Fossum said:
"This was a brutal, unprovoked, and irrational assault on another person. The court's setting of $1 million in bail is an appropriate response to the public safety risk posed by Mr. Sanders. I have filed a motion for an upward departure from the sentencing guidelines based on the age and vulnerability of Mr. Myers. Long-term incarceration would be the only appropriate response to the murder of Mr. Myers."
If convicted of the second-degree murder charge, Sanders faces up to 40 years in prison. He is also facing first-degree and third-degree assault charges in connection to the incident.
A hearing is scheduled for July 27 in Rice County.
