Portland woman attacked by homeless man blames city for ‘defunding the police’

Mary Costantino warned that unless the city smartened up and boosted funding for law enforcement, more of her fellow citizens could end up in the same position.

According to Fox News, the incident took place around 10:30 pm Friday night in the southwest area of the city.

"My friend and I just went for a drink at a place that I'd been to many times close to my gym in a nice neighborhood," she told the outlet. "We were walking back to my car and ... as we were walking down the street, I got hit and fell to the ground and was knocked unconscious."

"It happened really fast, kind of out of nowhere," she continued, explaining that the homeless man had "hurled" an aluminum water bottle at her face. "All I knew is that I was bleeding, I didn't really feel any pain at the time."

Costantino went on to note that she thought they were still being attacked in some way, and managed to call 911. "I was very calm, but I was also very sure I was gonna die," she said.

"I do not hold the police accountable for this at all," she stated. "I hold our city accountable for defunding the police. We're in this situation where we don't have enough police force to protect our citizens, and we did this to ourselves. If we don't have police officers to come to the side of somebody who is under attack, then we're all on our own."

As Fox News reports, a Portland Police Bureau spokesperson explained that officers were dispatched at 10:55, and didn't arrive on scene until after 11:00, at which point Costantino was already home.

The average response time for "high priority" 911 calls in Portland is currently 19.2 minutes, but it has been steadily increasing since January.