A wheelchair-bound elderly man with cerebral palsy was assaulted and robbed of several hundred dollars in his home early Thursday morning, a spokesman for the Iberia Parish Sheriff’s Office said.

Warren Gabriel, 62, told investigators his assailant entered his apartment at 710 Bayard St. about 3 a.m. Thursday and “tried to smother me” with a towel.

“I was sleeping and then I felt something on my face and I couldn’t breathe,” he said Thursday after returning from the hospital where he was treated for several cuts to his nose.

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Gabriel said he never saw the person’s face but is confident it was a woman.

“I grabbed her breasts at one point, that’s how I could tell it was a female,” he said, adding that “she didn’t make a sound.”

Gabriel said he played dead at one point, hoping the attack would end. He said he eventually pointed to his wallet, which was hidden between two pillows when he realized that may have been what his attacker sought.

“If she hadn’t found my wallet, she would have killed me,” Gabriel said.

After the attack, Gabriel telephoned his son before calling authorities. Gabriel described the attack as the most terrifying of his life.

The assailant made off with more than $440 in the wallet, as well as Gabriel’s ID and food stamps and Medicare cards, said Capt. Wendell Raborn, public information officer for the Sheriff’s Office.                   

Gabriel said he has since recovered much of the contents of the wallet and the ID and Medicare card were spotted scattered about at Murray’s USA gas station in front of Wal-Mart late Thursday.

The Sheriff’s Office was unable to confirm that report as of press time.

Raborn described Gabriel’s injuries as moderate, and the victim complained of a swollen face, adding that his mouth was hurting.

Raborn said investigators have leads in the case but no suspects as “several people fit the description” of the assailant. Raborn said an eventual suspect could face “a multitude of charges,” including attempted homicide and robbery.

Gabriel is not only wheelchair bound but lies in a hospital bed in his apartment and a caretaker regularly assists him in bathing and eating. He said in a telephone interview he suspects his caretaker, whom he accused of tricking him recently to make a copy of his key.

But Raborn said the caretaker is not a suspect at this time. He said Gabriel told authorities he routinely left his doors unlocked, and Gabriel said his caretaker had always been “very friendly.”