Boston Man Accused Of Attacking Woman For Not Saying 'Good Morning'

BOSTON, MA — A Boston man will face a dangerousness hearing Tuesday after he was charged with attacking a 59-year-old woman who he accused of not saying "good morning" to him, the Suffolk County District Attorney said in a news release Monday.

Dorchester's Ian Atkinson, 33, was charged Thursday, a week after he is accused of punching the woman, officials said.

Officials said that before the attack, Atkinson cursed the woman out for not greeting him as she watered her lawn on Balsam Street in Dorchester. Then, "suddenly fearful because of the aggressive nature of Atkinson’s remark," the woman started filming Atkinson with her cellphone before he began punching her, according to officials.

Home surveillance footage shows the woman was punched at least seven times in the head before being taken to the hospital, where doctors determined that she had a fractured nose and hemorrhage to her left eye, officials said.

After the attack, Atkinson entered a car that was parked nearby, put it in reverse, and swerved in the woman's direction before driving away, officials said.

Statements from the woman—as well as information from a GPS tracker Atkinson was wearing—resulted in a warrant on Atkinson and he was arrested days later, according to officials.

Atkinson has been charged with assault and battery causing serious bodily injury and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon (the car.)

The judge ordered Atkinson held without bail pending the Tuesday dangerousness hearing. The prosecutor requested that Atkinson's bail is revoked on an existing assault and firearm possession case against Atkinson, but a ruling was not immediately made.

“It’s difficult to comprehend the viciousness and randomness of such an attack, in this case on a stranger doing nothing more than watering her lawn," Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in Monday's news release. "All over a perceived—and perhaps nonexistent—slight. But it isn’t difficult to admire the bravery and alertness of this victim, and her presence of mind not only to get crucial video of her attacker but also to notice that he was strapped with a GPS device."