MISSOULA — Police in Missoula are searching for a man suspected of assaulting a former Daily Inter Lake reporter, likely costing the 70-year-old man the sight in his left eye.

Les Gapay said he was assaulted Sunday in the parking lot of the Mullan Road Super Walmart, where he was staying in his pickup for the night.

Gapay said as he was leaving the store he was approached by two intoxicated men who wanted to shake hands with him. He said he didn’t want to, and then one of the men punched him in the chest and hit him at least two more times.

He said a third man “came out of nowhere,” took his cellphone and hit him in the eye at least five times.

Gapay underwent surgery on his eye Monday and said the surgeon told him he has about a 5 percent chance of seeing out of that eye again.

The first two men — Albert Kelly Thomas and Michael Lehner — were arrested and face misdemeanor charges.

Officers have a warrant to arrest Sean Marceau, 30, of Missoula on suspicion of felony aggravated assault. Missoula Police Sgt. Kim Klawitter said Marceau may have fled to Spokane.

Gapay was a correspondent for the Inter Lake based in Bigfork in the late 1980s and has also worked for the Wall Street Journal and Missoulian. He attended the School of Journalism at the University of Montana in the 1960s.

In recent years, he has lived in a senior apartment complex in Rancho Mirage, Calif., after being homeless for more than six years.

He still occasionally writes guest opinions for the Montana Perspectives page in the Sunday Inter Lake.

Gapay, who said he gave up his low-income housing in California to move to Montana, said he plans to stay in Missoula and will camp and live in his truck until he can get into low-income housing.