MIAMI — Caitlin Dydzuhn said she thought she was going to die when a stranger attacked her while she walked with her dog in downtown Miami.
Attorney Judd Rosen, who represents Dydzuhn, said she had just walked out of the MarinaBlue, a 60-story skyscraper at 888 Biscayne Boulevard.
Raydean Johnson, a homeless man armed with a shank made out of a tire pressure gauge and a nail, attacked her from behind, according to police.
“I started to see fists flying at me from, you know, my peripheral vision, like hooks,” Dydzuhn, 36, said, adding, “I realized, ‘Oh my God! This is a person attacking me!’”
Johnson, 49, punched her, slammed her head on the ground, and stabbed her, according to police. Rosen said Dydzuhn was “seconds away” from being killed.
“In the moments where I was fighting for my life, it was like that was all I was focused on, was fighting for my life, trying to defend, you know, however I could, to try to block a death blow,” Dydzuhn said.
MarinaBlue security did not stop the attack, Rosen said. Dydzuhn said she was on the ground when she “made peace” with dying.
“That’s one of the worst feelings,” Dydzuhn said.
A good Samaritan intervened, and police officers responded. Dydzuhn said she has been visually impaired after surviving the horrific attack on May 19.
“I had to call my parents, and you know, break the news to them,” Dydzuhn said through tears.
Police officers arrested Johnson after a standoff that shut down Biscayne Boulevard for about two hours. A witness recorded a video showing police officers deploying Tasers and Johnson collapsing.
Dydzuhn had to undergo emergency surgery. On Friday, with bruises on her face and eyes injured, she said she struggles with both pain and terrors.
Miami-Dade corrections held Johnson without bond on Friday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center near Doral.
Johnson faced a new case on charges of attempted murder, aggravated battery with great bodily harm, criminal mischief while armed, resisting arrest with violence, and resisting arrest without violence.
Johnson also had five warrant cases on a probation violation, six counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon, criminal mischief, and aggravated battery on a police officer.
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