"NCIS" actress Pauley Perrette tweeted Friday morning that she was assaulted overnight by a "psychotic homeless man" who said he was going to kill her.

Perrette plays forensic scientist Abby Sciuto on the hit CBS show. She posted a tweet including an image of a long document that described the incident.

"I am shaken and traumatized," she wrote. "My life changed tonight."

Perrette wrote that as she was walking from her Hollywood home to a guest house, a man grabbed her and punched her in the face and told her repeatedly he was going to kill her.

"He grabbed me so forcefully, pinned my arm, punched me in the nose, forehead repeatedly telling me he was going to kill me," she tweeted. "Then he showed me how he was going to kill me."

The 46-year-old said her attacker said his name was William and after she told him he has a beautiful name and her nephew shares his name, he began to hit her again.

"He started to punch me again and then said, 'Get the f--k out of here,' and I did." The actress wrote that she then collapsed on the sidewalk and a dog being walked by its owner licked her face.

"Some guy walked right past with a dog that licked my face. He was on his phone, annoyed. Did nothing," she wrote.

She then texted her friend next door and her "church friend cop." She drew a sketch of her attacker for police and her friend, James, snapped a picture of the sketch on his phone.

"[He] was headed towards Hollywood Blvd with murder in his eyes...[James] found the guy, surveilled him, the cops came and followed James to him. They got him. Felony assault."

LAPD officer Richardo Hernandez confirmed to FOX411 that a white male, David Merck, was arrested on battery charges and is currently being held on $100,000.

Police say records don't list an attorney for Merck, who turned 45 on Thursday.

Sgt. Bob Ward told the Los Angeles Times that Merck was a known transient with a history of run-ins with the department.

Perrette reflected on her experience at the end of her note leaving the following message: "We need full mental health care. We need housing and help for the homeless. We need to support our cops. We need to not walk alone. I need to heal."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

She ended the note saying, "I almost died tonight."

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2015/11/13/ncis-actress-pauley-perrette-assualted-by-homeless-man-who-threatened-to-kill/?intcmp=hplnws

I've seen Hollywood in both the day and night time... totally different at night.. no shortage of characters out at night. not a nice place. I don't doubt this happened.

And what she endured is terrible and she is very lucky.

But it also looks (to me anyway) that she made this into a script. passed out on the sidewalk.. dog stops to lick her face. dog owner keeps walking. bad guy walking away with murder in his eyes. Very graphic photos go into one's head reading it.. Then the PC " we need to change everything" statement...of course it was just everything that happened to her only.

why didn't she just dial 911 first.? as opposed to her friend... and the church cop.

Ziva woulda beaten his balls off...

thats sad
hope she is ok

no telling how long it take cops to get there,,,,the friend was already there in the community,, I would have done both,, but cant tell in that particular situation when one is in shock/fear,,,,

Love Pauley, hope she heals soon. Homelessness? Violence? On the one hand, nothing new for most of us. We come into contact with homeless people daily if you're an urban dweller. Occasionally, someone panhandling can be become abusive, and aggressive if they don't get what they want.

Pauley wants it 'handled' with full everything. Mental health care, housing, etc. Well we actually used to do that back in the day with institutional care. Most street people had either a mental condition or an addiction issue. We used to pick them up, jail them, and they went through the legal system. If convicted of a crime, they went to mental institution for long term care.

In the late 60's a movement started to empty the hospitals, make these people part of society, just give them a big bottle of meds, and make them promise to take the pills every day.

We got the halfway house concept, with low paid government workers tasked to check up on people every day or to be live in den mothers. The government provided monthly welfare checks. The afflicted sold their drugs for recreational ones, and when off their meds, assaulted others in the home or outside the home.

So the group homes were all licensed for one part of town, and the mentally ill were marginalized and ghettoized. Everyone knew where the 'crazy' part of town was. They became easy prey for street crime, and were sometimes defrauded by caregivers.

The 80's and 90's gave us 'rehab', but your HMO or your company paid for it. Great if you had a job, not so much if you slept in a box. As the 'yuppies' rose to power, street people were an eyesore. They were a nuisance and lowered property values. The problem was most cities and states had dismantled their large institutions and there was no where for these people to go.

Best solution was 'outpatient' care. Go somewhere every day to get your meds.

You want it 'handled'? You'll need to build multi-use long term care facilities for the boomers going senile, needing palliative care, hospice care, and mental health care.

i don't watch tv, so I don't know who she is but, sounds like she was lucky. What happened to the good old days of Electric Shock Therapy and full frontal lobotomies. Man, Those were the days.

We had one of those bona a fide nuthouse in our county and when I was a teenager I worked for a office supply company that was always trying to get them as a customer, because it was a major account. Big state hospital.

One day we get a call from their purchasing dept. telling us that they need some supplies.. that their main supplier couldn't deliver and if we did this ( and gave them a good price) they would consider giving us the entire account.

We jumped on!. The purchasing agent gave us a huge order and actually even a P.O. #. and the boss told me and another guy to drive the truck out there and make this big delivery.

As we pulled up there were other delivery trucks and some office people from the hospital standing around.

There was no big order. for us.. or any of the other companies. One of the nuts got his hands on a phone and a phone book.. placed orders all over the place.... true story.

Cuckoo's Nest?

I am guessing she was pretty much in a daze, she did get her bell rung pretty good. Everything seems to move in slow motion when that happens.