Family demands answers after Navy vet, 53, mysteriously attacked after night out with friends

The family of man who served in the military and who was murdered on the streets of Minneapolis following a night out with friends are begging for help in solving their loved one's murder. 

Gulf War Navy veteran James Quigley, 53, was brutally attacked after going to a concert back in May when he was attacked at Nicollet Mall in downtown  Minneapolis. 

Quigley's friends had returned to their hotel while he remained out for a drink at a local bar. It was as he was making his way home at around 1am when he was attacked, close to a bus shelter. 

During the attack, the former Navy vet hit the back of his head on the cement. When he was taken to hospital, he was intubated and later suffered a stroke.

Family were ultimately forced to make the heart-wrenching decision to take him off life support. 

Quigley died ten days following the attack with the Hennepin County Medical Examiner confirming the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head. The death has been ruled a homicide.

Frustratingly, the Minneapolis Police Department have made no arrests since the May 4 killing.

Police say there is some video of the incident but the footage has not yet been released by police to the public.

The family have not yet viewed the clip but an officer explained what it depicted. 

'As he walked by the bus shelter, there was some people in there. Jim kept walking but then turned around to say something or go back and then turned. It was when he turned that he was jumped,' Quigley's sister Michelle Swanson said to KARE.

'There was just like a boot print on his face. His neck was, I don't know if he was strangled, if this person strangled him or what they did,' Swanson added in an interview with Fox 9.

'He deserves justice. All he was doing was a night out with friends to go listen to music downtown. He shouldn't have had his life beaten out of him,' she said. 

Swanson, who is one of Quigley's six siblings, said she would like Minneapolis City Council to overturn their ban on facial recognition believing it might help catch the killer in her brother's case. 

She believes detectives with the MPD are doing their best to find the person responsible. 

'If this person had any identity, meaning social media, a driver's license, a state ID, a passport, they're gonna show up in these databases,' Swanson said.

'He deserves justice. All he was doing was a night out with friends to go listen to music downtown. He shouldn't have had his life beaten out of him.

'You felt so close to him. If you talked to his family or friends, he has a huge circle of friends. Everyone felt so close to him,' Swanson said.

As a Navy veteran, Quigley received full honors at his Fort Snelling National Cemetery funeral held earlier this week.