(BOSTON, MA)– A 91-year-old Civil Rights activist is recovering in the hospital after she was stabbed multiple times while walking her dog.
The incident occurred in Boston’s Franklin Park on Tuesday around 8:30 p.m.
Authorities say they responded to Playstead Road after a witness discovered the woman, Jean McGuire, suffering from several stab wounds.
She was taken to an area hospital where she is expected to survive.
A friend of McGuire’s told reporters that McGuire believes the suspect was trying to rape her:
“She believes he was trying to rape her,” Brady-McGinnis said. “She said when he knocked her down, he was groping her and touching on her.”
The assailant ran off after McGuire’s dog went after him.
No arrests have been made at this time and authorities are still searching for a suspect.
McGuire was the first Black woman to be elected to the Boston School Committee in 1981 and served for more than 40 years. She is also the executive director of the Metropolitan Council for Educational Opportunity which sends students of color from Boston to predominantly white suburban schools.
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu released her a statement after speaking to McGuire saying:
“I am disgusted and angry to know that an elder in our community had to fear for her safety going about her daily routine, walking her dog,” Wu said.
The METCO Directors Association also released a statement saying:
“It is alarming that this act of violence would happen to Dr. McGuire in her own community,” the Directors said. “Dr. McGuire is a pioneer of the METCO program and an educational leader in Boston. She has been a civil rights activist for over sixty years and an individual who has sacrificed for and given so much of herself to the city of Boston. She is well-known and beloved by the entire community. As an association, we pray for her continued recovery.”