Washington DC

‘Lucky to Be Alive': Video Shows Person Attacking DC Woman Outside Capitol Hill Home

The woman said she's lived at her house in D.C.'s Capitol Hill neighborhood for 25 years and has never had any issues with crime until now

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Security camera video shows the moment a young person hit a D.C. woman in the back of the head with a brick outside her Capitol Hill home.

Isabella Harris said she came home from a trip on Monday night and had to double park in front of her home to get things out of her car.

Security video Harris shared with News4 shows two young people walk past her car.

Harris said she saw them, but she wasn't concerned.

"Walking down the street. So, no big deal. It happens all the time," Harris said.

A few minutes later, one of the young people returns and attacks her from behind, slamming a brick into the back of her head.

"I had no idea what happened," Harris said.

She said she found herself in the street on her back, clutching her car keys in her hand and looking up at her attacker.

"I realized, 'Oh my gosh, this person hit me intentionally,'" Harris said.

Harris immediately screamed for help, and she believes that's what kept the person from hitting her again or stealing her car.

"He didn’t care about me. He didn’t care about whoever he was hitting. That makes me very angry," she said.

She was treated at a hospital for her severe head wound.

"I'm lucky to be alive and I'm lucky that many of my neighbors came to help me and they called the police," she said.

A juvenile suspect was arrested shortly after the attack, and police said officers stopped the suspect the night before for a curfew violation.

Harris said she now takes extra precautions when coming home or walking her dog after dark.

"I have to ask my neighbors to come out and watch me, help me just to watch so we're all OK and I'm OK. I want all my other neighbors to know that they should do the same. They shouldn’t do what I did alone," she said.

Police advise residents who are loading or unloading their cars at night not to turn on their flashers because it could alert an opportunistic criminal nearby.

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