A Boston man was convicted Monday of attacking a woman for not saying "good morning" as he walked by her in the summer of 2023 in Dorchester.
Ian Atkinson, 34, of Dorchester, was convicted of assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon for the attack on July 13, 2023. The victim, a 59-year-old woman, said she was watering her plants in her front yard on Balsam Street when she was approached by a stranger, who said "when people say good morning to you, you should say hi you crazy (expletive)."
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The woman was able to record some of the attack on her cellphone, and it was also seen on surveillance footage from a nearby home. Prosecutors said the man repeatedly punched her in the face and threw her against a fence. He stopped when the woman bit him.
The surveillance video shows the man come close to hitting her with his car before taking off. Atkinson was a few days after the attack using his license plate, which the victim got before he drove off. He was already under GPS monitoring at the time for a separate case.
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Atkinson's attorney argued that the woman was the aggressor and sprayed him with the garden hose, but prosecutors said the video does not show any of that. The victim had a broken nose, bruises to her head and face, and a broken blood vessel in her left eye.
“For this victim, a pleasant summer morning descended into a violent and cruel ordeal for the most inexplicable of reasons. But, even as she was being attacked, she had the presence of mind to record video, and that decision, along with her brave testimony, provided enough evidence for the judge to make his decision. I join all the members of the community in thanking this survivor for her courage,” Suffolk District Attorney Kevin Hayden said in a media statement.
Atkinson waived his right to a jury trial. A judge found him guilty and sentenced him to two years in state prison, followed by two years of probation.
