A Gulf War veteran suffering from Alzheimer’s was allegedly beaten and tossed around like a rag doll by his longtime aide at a state-run veterans home in Montrose, and the whole sickening attack was captured on a hidden camera planted by his desperate wife.

Angela Sangro says she knew something was wrong when her husband, Albert O’Toole, started declining fast after being moved from a federal VA facility to the state-run home across the campus in Westchester County. Unexplained bruises appeared. He seemed heavily medicated and agitated. So she did what any loving wife would do: she secretly installed a camera in his room.

What it recorded is pure outrage.

Footage shows aide Matthew Cox yanking food straight out of the veteran’s hands. Then the longtime caregiver grabs the frail hero by the neck, hoists him up, and violently throws him into a chair. Cox forcefully yanks him back into position and delivers a punch to the side of his face or neck. Moments later, the aide appears to whack O’Toole in the head with a broom before shoving him back into the restraint chair. The veteran can be heard crying out in pain. No one comes to check on him.

“He picks him up by his neck and throws him in the chair… and then he forcefully pulls him into the chair and punches him,” Sangro told News 12, her voice breaking as she described watching the nightmare unfold.

Cox was arrested in April on felony charges, including grabbing the victim by the neck, forcefully restraining him, and striking him. The state Health Department put him on leave and eventually fired him from the home.

But here’s the part that will make your blood boil: Cox is still collecting a government paycheck. A VA spokesman confirmed he remains a federal employee, just removed from direct patient care duties while the case drags on.

The New York State Veterans’ Home at Montrose has a troubling track record. Between 2021 and 2025, investigators found more than 47 complaints and 25 citations at the facility, including failures involving restraints, medication, and reporting suspected abuse. The home was hit with over $29,000 in fines last year after Medicare cited repeated failures to prevent and report abuse.

O’Toole, who suffered a traumatic brain injury from an explosion during his Gulf War service, had initially been thriving in the federal facility. After the move to the state-run side, everything changed.

His wife now stays up at night glued to the camera feed, terrified someone else will hurt the man who once risked everything for his country.“I never dreamt that this would be our life. I can’t even sleep anymore,” she said. “I just watch him at night on that camera to make sure nobody’s hurting him.”While New York politicians have been quick to rush to migrant shelters, hold press conferences, and post videos about conditions for illegal immigrants, this Gulf War veteran, and countless others like him, have been left to fend for themselves in facilities with serious problems.

Our veterans deserve far better than this.