A Massachusetts man was convicted guilty of assaulting a lady simply because she did not say “good morning” to him.
A judge convicted Ian Atkinson, 34, of assault and battery and assault with a dangerous weapon on Monday, one year after he attempted to hit a 59-year-old woman with his car, according to Suffolk County District Attorney Kevin Hayden.
On the morning of July 13, 2023, a woman in Dorchester was watering her plants when Atkinson approached her and said, “When people say good morning to you, you should say hi, you crazy b****.”
The woman, who was not named in the statement, then started filming Atkinson with her cellphone. He stepped out of the black Mercedes he had driven and “repeatedly punched” the woman in the face before tossing her against the fence.
She bit him, causing him to stop assaulting her.
“After the attack Atkinson drove the Mercedes toward the victim, almost striking her,” the prosecutor’s office stated.
Police arrived at the scene at 9 a.m., and discovered the woman “bleeding profusely” from her nose. She was rushed to a local hospital, where she was diagnosed with a fractured nose, contusions to her head and face, and a broken blood vessel in her left eye.
The incident was captured on both her smartphone camera and CCTV film, according to the district attorney. Atkinson was wearing a GPS monitoring device during the incident and was captured a few days later.
His bench trial lasted just three days. On Monday, the judge found Atkinson guilty and sentenced him to two years in state jail, followed by two years on probation.
“For this victim, a lovely summer morning turned into a violent and horrible ordeal for the most bizarre of reasons. But, even while she was being attacked, she had the foresight to film video, and that decision, together with her courageous testimony, gave enough evidence for the judge to make his conclusion,” Hayden added. “I join all the members of the community in thanking this survivor for her courage.”