--- title: "Marine Corps has no record that suspect in Milwaukee acid attack was ever a Marine" description: "The Marine Corps says it has no record of service for Clifton A. Blackwell, the 61-year-old Milwaukee man arrested on Saturday night for allegedly throwing battery acid on a Hispanic man while asking him, \"Why did you come here and invade my country?\"" date: "2019-11-06" modified: "2019-11-06" authors: - name: "Jared Keller" job_title: "Former Managing Editor" link: "https://taskandpurpose.com/authors/jaredkeller/" url: "https://taskandpurpose.com/news/marine-corps-milwaukee-acid-attack/" categories: - "Around the World" - "Marine Corps" - "Military Branches" - "News" - "United States" tags: - "justice" - "Northern Command" - "Terrorism" --- # Marine Corps has no record that suspect in Milwaukee acid attack was ever a Marine ![]() https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcwbFlabs74 The Marine Corps says it has no record of service for Clifton A. Blackwell, the 61-year-old Milwaukee man arrested on Saturday night for allegedly throwing battery acid on a Hispanic man while asking him, "Why did you come here and invade my country?" The Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and Associated Press previously reported that Blackwell, 61, was a Marine Corps vet based on comments from both his mother Jacqueline, 83, of California, and brother Arthur, 63, of Colorado. But a Marine Corps spokeswoman, Yvonne Carlock, told Task & Purpose that the service "did not have a record matching the info they provided for the perpetrator." Blackwell was arrested on Saturday night in south Milwaukee after allegedly throwing battery acid on 42-year-old Mahmud Villalaz, a U.S. citizen who immigrated from Peru, following a dispute over how the latter had parked his truck, the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel [reports](). Speaking to the Associated Press, Arthur Blackwell had [stated]() that his brother had served at least four years in the Marines and "was not a confrontational person." When reached by Task & Purpose, he reiterated that his brother was honorably discharged after a four-year term in the Corps in "the late 1980s," where he was deployed to Panama. Blackwell could not provide additional details regarding his brother's service. "He was a pistol champion, I believe, and he earned a Pistol Sharpshooter badge," he said. "But I haven't talked to him in 25 years ... he's never been in contact with us." Speaking to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Jaqueline Backwell [stated]() that her son had been under the care of the Milwaukee VA Medical Center for service-connected post-traumatic stress disorder. "Once you've been in the service, you look at the world a different way," Jacqueline Blackwell, a California psychologist and herself a military veteran, [told]() the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel. "I don't know if people can understand if they haven't been there." When Task & Purpose called two numbers listed for Jacqueline, Arthur answered: "She's not here." ## Author Jared Keller is the former managing editor of Task & Purpose. His writing has appeared in Aeon, the Los Angeles Review of Books, the New Republic, Pacific Standard, Smithsonian, and The Washington Post, among other publications. ### Author social links [Twitter]() [Facebook]() [LinkedIn]() [Instagram]()