Sacramento Woman Fights Off Attacker

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- "I thought I was going to die."

Those are the words of a Sacramento woman who was attacked on her morning walk Sunday. We'll call her Jane and she's alive tonight because she is a fighter.

"I thought he was either going to rape me or stab me," she tells CBS13's Derek Shore. "He told me to shut up, but I just kept screaming."

Jane was on her morning walk at the park near her Pocket area home when she noticed a man in a white car watching her. She knew something wasn't right and turned around to go home. She says he got out and began to follow her, even trying to strike up conversation.

Without her cell phone, Jane bolted toward home and he was right behind.

"He pulled his pants down in the shrubs and I thought, 'Oh my god, I gotta get out of here,' and I couldn't walk fast enough."

She says the man revealed himself to her twice and then he made his move.

"The next I knew I heard him running across the street and he grabbed me on the arm and he pushed me down."

Jane was in a fight for her life, and without thinking, she fought.

"I don't know exactly what was happening while I was down there other than I was yelling and he told me to shut up, but I guess I didn't shut up. I kept yelling."

The shrieks were enough.

"The next thing I knew he just took off."

Police eventually caught up with 31-year-old Bradley Gray and charged him with sexual assault. The woman's husband went back to the area where she was attacked and Gray's car was still there, so he was able to report the license plate to police.

"I keep thinking back about it, and I keep thinking I'm really lucky," she says.

Lucky and loud -- but she says it won't stop her from walking.

"I'm just maybe going to have a partner with me when I walk."