‘Do you wanna die?’: Report details assault on MIT student as accused attacker held without bail

Disturbing new details have emerged about the reported sexual assault on an MIT student over the weekend that resulted in this week’s arrest of a Level 3 sex offender with a prior conviction.

Nahom Getaneh, 33, was held without bail following his arraignment Wednesday in the Roxbury Division of Boston Municipal Court on charges of assault with intent to rape and indecent assault and battery in an alleged sexual assault of the student in Boston on Saturday. A plea of not guilty was entered on Getaneh’s behalf.

Getaneh was previously convicted in 2007 of indecent assault and battery on a person aged 14 or older, according to the state’s Sex Offender Registry Board. Level 3 sex offenders are said to have a high risk of re-offending and pose a high degree of danger to the public.

During Saturday’s incident, the victim told police she was able to free herself from her attacker and she ran and locked herself in a nearby bedroom in her sorority building before police arrived, according to the police report.

Late Saturday night in Boston, according to the police report, Getaneh threatened the victim after attacking her from behind while she entered her residence through the rear alley of the Delta Phi Epsilon sorority at 515 Beacon St. at about 11:45 p.m., police said.

The victim told investigators she was bringing her bicycle into the back of the building when she saw the suspect, later identified by police as Getaneh, leaning up against the adjacent building, according to the police report. At first, the victim thought he was just another person attending a party next door.

After she entered the punch code into the door of the sorority building, the victim said the suspect then followed her into the apartment and “pushed her into the laundry room blocking the door to prevent her from leaving,” the police report states.

He then forced her to the ground, and “she could not move from underneath him,” the report states.

The victim began screaming for her attacker to get off of her “and that is when he attempted to strangle her and said ‘Do you wanna die’?” according to the police report.

The victim then began kicking and fighting off her attacker, and was able to break free, the police report said.

The suspect then allegedly grabbed the victim by her hair and said: “Your legs are free but I have your hair (expletive),” the report states.

The victim then escaped and ran to a bedroom in the building and locked herself in a closet until police arrived, the report states.

A few days later, police arrested Getaneh in the area of Atkinson Street and Southampton Street around 2 p.m. Tuesday. Police said surveillance images helped them eventually identify Getaneh, who was also wanted on two outstanding warrants on charges of failure to register as a sex offender and possession of Class B drugs.

In 2007, Getaneh was convicted in Cambridge District Court for grabbing a woman’s breast as she walked on Massachusetts Avenue with her boyfriend the previous year. In addition to that 2006 sex assault case, he has five other cases at Cambridge District Court, including for kidnapping, assault and battery on a disabled person, and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and trespassing.

Getaneh has also served time, twice, for failing to register as a sex offender.

Attorney Wendy Murphy, a victim’s advocate, told Boston 25 that all of this will be taken into consideration when a judge considers whether to release Getenah during a dangerousness hearing that is scheduled for Monday.

“I think the judge will be hard pressed to find that he’s not dangerous because of this one incident, attacking a woman at her own home,” said Murphy. “But in addition to that, when you take into account he has a number of past offenses and recently stopped registering as a sex offender, which is one of the ways we make sure you’re not hurting other people, I think the judge will have good reason to find him dangerous today.”

The case illustrates the prevalence of sexual violence for young American women, and particularly for college students experiencing it at some point in their lifetime.

Women ages 18 to 24 who are college students are three times more likely than women in general to experience sexual violence, according to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network, or RAINN, in Washington, D.C., the nation’s largest anti-sexual violence organization.

And one out of every six American women has been the victim of an attempted or complete rape in her lifetime, according to RAINN.

The statistics about sexual violence on campus are staggering.

According to RAINN, among undergraduate students, more than one-quarter of females -- 26.4 percent -- experience rape or sexual assault through physical force, violence, or incapacitation.

Anyone who has experienced sexual violence or knows a victim of sexual violence can get help by calling the National Sexual Assault Telephone Hotline at 800.656.HOPE (4673), which will connect you with a trained staff member from a sexual assault service provider in your area.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates as more information becomes available.

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