Police appeal for help finding suspects in fatal Fort Worth beating

Police on Monday asked the public to help find the suspects in the fatal assault of a Watauga man in a Fort Worth Wal-Mart parking lot in June.

Homicide detectives on Monday released a photograph of a black Mitsubishi Outlander Sport that they believe is similar to the one that left the scene of the June 12 attack on Marty Britton, 55, who died in August from the injuries.

Authorities said they hope someone can identify the people in the vehicle, which is believed to be a 2013 to 2015 model.

Surveillance video recorded Britton parking his pickup and walking toward the store, police wrote in a news release. The black car drove up next to him and stopped.

The driver can be seen getting out of the car and then he “possibly struck the victim with his fists,” according to police. The driver is described as an African-American man or a black man of Puerto Rican descent who appears to be wearing a mechanic’s work shirt. It is not clear whether a passenger also attacked Britton, but the passenger can be seen getting back into the car, which drove south through the parking lot, police said.

At least two passengers were in the vehicle, police said.

Britton was found in front of the garden center at the Wal-Mart at 8401 Anderson Boulevard shortly before 7 p.m. June 12, police reported.

Britton told officers that he was “jumped” in the parking lot, police said.

Britton refused treatment by paramedics called to the scene. He drove home and repeated to his wife that he was jumped in the parking lot, Rhonda Britton has told the Star-Telegram.

She said that her husband’s head hit the pavement.

Rhonda Britton, who is a paramedic, said she recognized signs of head injury so she drove her husband to a freestanding emergency room near their house. A CT scan found bleeding in his brain.

He was transferred to Texas Health Harris Methodist Hospital Fort Worth where, on June 14, part of his brain was surgically removed as his head swelled with blood, she said. Britton was in intensive care at the hospital for several weeks.

After the surgery, another CT scan showed fluid in his head. After the fluid was drained the first time, he appeared to be getting better, she said.

“After the first surgery, he could kind of whisper, he would give me kisses, but then I noticed after his last fluid drain that he didn’t know who I was,” Rhonda Britton told the Star-Telegram. “It was devastating.”

The two had been married a year and a half.

After medical personnel at Harris told her that there was nothing else they could do for him and that he would have to go to a nursing home, she instead had him moved to their home.

Marty Britton died at 1:30 p.m. on Aug. 26 at his home in Watauga, the Tarrant County medical examiner reported. A ruling on the cause and manner of death was still pending as of Monday.

A Facebook page called “Justice for Marty” has been created.

This report includes material from Star-Telegram archives.

This story was originally published September 14, 2015 at 1:47 PM with the headline "Police appeal for help finding suspects in fatal Fort Worth beating."