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Man accused of stabbing his wife in Belmont arraigned

BELMONT — A man is now behind bars after being accused of stabbing his wife in broad daylight in Belmont Wednesday morning.

This is the second public domestic violent attack this month. Earlier in July a man stabbed a woman to death inside a crowded Worcester restaurant.

Luckily, in this case out of Cambridge District Court, the victim is still alive.

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"Four to five women die in America every day from abuse in this country," said victim advocate Wendy Murphy.

She added that the only way to stop these violent attacks on women is to keep their abusers behind bars.

"If the system doesn’t respond harshly the first time or the second time, you're going to end up with an abuser that then starts to use weapons," she said.

The violent knife attacks during the month of July have claimed the life of one 31-year-old woman and have left another with serious injuries.

Both incidents happened in public and both women knew their attacker.

"That shows you that there’s this brazen attitude on behalf of offenders that they don't even expect to get in trouble when it happens out in public," Murphy said.

She also said that, here in Massachusetts, victims are able to drop domestic violence charges if they choose. She says, in turn, that gives the abuser the power.

"In Massachusetts we are particularly bad in how we treat domestic violence because we let the batterer in a sense choose to drop the charges by letting the woman drop the charges," she said.

Related: Woman stabbed inside Worcester restaurant has died; N.H. man charged with murder

In Worcester the 31-year-old woman was stabbed to death by an ex-boyfriend inside a busy restaurant. In Belmont, the woman's husband stabbed her multiple times in broad daylight in front of neighbors.

To prevent more attacks like these, murphy says self-defense training is key.

"We want them to be comfortable that they have the authority and power and the skills to be able to handle a situation where there are weapons involved," she said.

Murphy says Massachusetts lacks a system that labels all attacks or assaults as domestic violence incidents, she says other states are already ahead of us in doing so.

The suspect in the Belmont stabbing is being held without bail until a dangerousness hearing. In the meantime, the victim is recovering in a local hospital.