BOSTON (CBS) – The woman who brutally attacked a man on a Red Line train is telling her side of the story. She says she is sorry for what happened as another passenger recorded the relentless beating on a cell phone.

Her name is Melissa Cote and she says there’s a lot more to what happened Thursday night than what was shown on that video. She wanted to come forward not only to apologize but also to set the record straight.

“It’s horrible and I do feel sorry,” she says, for furiously punching the passenger, stopping only when someone stepped in.

But Melissa says the camera started rolling after another confrontation with the victim, “He touched my leg… and I told him a few select words.” She says it’s what he did next that really set her off, “He started shoving my dog that was laying there not doing anything with her muzzle on. Just because I told him to stop touching me he got so upset that he had to take his male aggression out on my dog?”

In the video, Melissa can be heard referring to that shoving, repeatedly asking the victim, “you put your shoe on my dog?”

Watch Video Here (Warning: explicit language)

The victim apologized saying, “I didn’t mean to.”

Now she says she knows she was wrong but admits she was drunk and lost control. She says her life has been tough these days, “My house got condemned I became recently homeless, I haven’t been working.”

Unfortunately for Cote, that isn’t quelling strangers’ strong reaction to the beating. One woman interrupted our interview to share her feelings, “Anybody who hits someone else the way you did is a bad person. You need to learn to control yourself.”

Melissa says she is ready to move past the incident and would like to personally apologize to the victim, “Hopefully I can eventually meet this guy and give him a hug and a big, fat, wet kiss on the cheek and say sorry.”

Transit Police questioned Melissa and will charge her with assault and battery and disorderly conduct. The victim has changed his mind and will press charges now.