Woman attacked in street: I fought back to save my life
A woman who was assaulted and nearly raped in Northeast Miami-Dade said on Thursday that she fought back and it saved her life.
“I just told myself just fight with the last part you have in you and I kept saying ‘God help me, help me, help me God. I just kept screaming,” said the woman who did want her name used.
The attack, which was caught on a nearby surveillance camera, happened while she was walking home from work with her bike after getting a flat tire around 4:30 a.m. Monday. She said she heard a man run up behind her as she neared Northeast 115th Street and West Dixie Highway.
“I hear somebody’s foot like drag on the dirt. I took one second, I looked back and I saw someone coming at me,” she said.
In a split second, she said, the man was on top of her, punching her and trying to drag her into an alley. While she struggled to get away, the man tried to sexually assault her.
“I felt him pulling down my pants and I quickly turned around. Because he was pulling down my pants he was in back of me and was trying to pin me down,” she said.
The woman said she begged him to let her go and when he didn’t, she started to scream and fight back.
“I knew right then I was gonna either die or he was gonna really hurt me. In my mind I was just saying he gonna rape me, kill me, throw me over into that river. He’s gonna hurt me, he’s gonna leave me for dead,” she said.
She said she fought as hard as she could to survive.
“When I looked in his face he had a deep, deep darkness in his face, like he was really angry. He really wanted to hurt me,” she said.
She said her fighting back saved her life.
“I was screaming, I was trying to hit him, I was screaming and screaming,” she said. “He just put his hand over my mouth and I took his hand off. The screaming got to him and he let me go.”
In her 30s, the woman said she decided to share her story in hopes that no other woman will have to go through what she did. She would also like the public’s help in finding the man who attacked her before he hurts someone else.
“It has me on needles and pins now. When I lay down at night and close my eyes all I see is his face and I keep rewinding the events when it happened. That feeling keeps coming over me,” she said. “I don’t want anybody to be a victim. I think the next time he strikes, he’s going to really damage the next woman.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Miami-Dade Crime Stoppers at (305) 471-TIPS or send a text message to CRIMES and enter CSMD followed by the “tip”.
This story was originally published August 6, 2015 at 1:14 PM with the headline "Woman attacked in street: I fought back to save my life."