Woman suffers severe head trauma in Roxbury

(Wendy Maeda/Globe Staff)

By John R. Ellement, Globe Staff

A middle school student made a disturbing discovery this morning en route to school – a woman who had been beaten bloody lying on the lawn at a home where he routinely drops off his bike before school, according to neighbors and Boston police.

The boy found the woman in a yard on Winthrop Street around 7:35 a.m. as he was heading to the Dearborn Middle School, which is located across the street from where the woman was attacked, according to neighbors and police.

Police said the woman was so severely injured that they first believed she had been shot in the head, but once the 38-year-old woman was taken to Boston Medical Center, doctors discovered she was the victim of a beating.

She was in critical condition and expected to survive the assault. Police said no arrests have been made.

Yolanda Williams, a resident of the Winthrop Street apartment building, said middle school students who know her 14-year-old son routinely drop their bikes off at the building for safekeeping while they are in class.

She said the boy spotted the woman and then went and knocked on the first-floor door, telling residents what he had seen. Williams said her aunt rushed outside to help the woman, trying to stop the bleeding until paramedics arrived.

“It’s just been horrible around here,’’ said Williams, who has lived in the neighborhood for nine years and is pregnant with twins. She said a teen acquaintance of her family’s was shot multiple times on Saturday night a short distance away on Winthrop street. Police confirmed the non-fatal shooting. “I am ready to move. It’s time to go.’’

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