A woman who was attacked while walking to work in Beacon Hill later learned the man who allegedly assaulted her then stabbed someone on the Esplanade just hours later.
Christina Muccio tells NBC10 Boston in an exclusive interview that she instantly knew.
"I heard something coming up behind me, and that is when I knew, I knew," Muccio said of the June attack. "As I was looking back, he grabbed my bag, flipped me around, and was this close to my face. I always tell people, oh if I am ever in that situation I will just kick, or I will, hit or whatever, I froze."
Mucico was able to get away and called Boston police.
"I wasn't trying to upset anyone, or, get anyone in trouble, but at that point, if you are capable of that, what else are you capable of," she said.
The answer to that would come hours later.
Massachusetts State Police say a 23-year-old from Allston was stabbed with a pair of scissors as she ran on the Esplanade.
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Fast forward until last week, and Muccio says she got a letter in the mail with information on the man police arrested in connection with her assault.
"While I was okay, right, I'm glad I filed a report because it ended up turning into something a lot bigger," she said.
That's because a little searching on the Internet revealed the man arrested in her attack, was the same man charged in the attack on the Esplanade.
Even more surprising for Muccio is that the attacks happened on the same day, just hours apart.
"It's scary, this is our city, that girl was running doing something I do all the time, walking the same streets I walk all the time," she said. "My heart sunk."
Muccio says she now hopes to turn the whole incident into a positive, and she has reached out to the woman attacked on the Esplanade.
"If you are living in fear you really aren't living at all, so, being aware that is possible that it can happen to anyone, at any time," she said. "I'm like a very, there is rainbows and sunshine on the other side, it's an experience that I will turn into an opportunity to grow."
