BOSTON (WHDH) - Back Bay residents who regular the Charles River Esplanade say they’re going to be looking over their shoulders after a 37-year-old man was arrested for randomly stabbing a female jogger in the head on Friday.
“I would never expect anything like that to happen during the day in a very crowded, tourist-heavy, a lot of people running on the river,” said one neighborhood resident. “It’s shocking.”
People who live in the Back Bay were stunned to hear that the daylight attack occurred in such a busy area.
“You’d have no reason to not feel safe jogging on the Esplanade during the day,” a local resident said.
Luis Olivo, who has past addresses in Boston and Everett, is accused of tackling a 23-year-old Allston woman to the ground on a footbridge that runs parallel to the intersection of Dartmouth Street and Storrow Drive and stabbing her with scissors, according to a state police spokesman.
Ben Keffer, who witnessed the attack, said, “Her on the ground, seen a couple of bystanders helping her out, wrapping her head up because I guess she fell and hit it.”
The woman was taken to Massachusetts General Hosptial to be treated for a non-life-threatening laceration. She has since been released from the hospital.
Workers at the Buttermilk and Bourbon say they saw Olivo throw the pair of scissors into the outdoor eating area as the trooper gave chase.
Olivo was apprehended after a brief foot pursuit and struggle, during which a trooper discharged a stun gun to subdue him, state police said.
Bags of clothing were left scattered on the sidewalk where Olivo was arrested.
He was ordered held on $100,000 cash bail pending his arraignment Monday in Boston Municipal Court on charges including armed assault with intent to murder, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, aggravated assault and battery, assault and battery, resisting arrest, and disorderly conduct.
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