He was then charged with false imprisonment and threatening behavior

David Merck, 47, was arrested soon after the attack in 2015, thanks in part to a sketch Perrette drew for cops

NCIS actress Pauley Perrette says she is living in fear and afraid to walk outside her home after learning a vagrant, who attacked her in 2015, has been released from a state psychiatric institution.

A frightened Perrette, 48, spoke to Fox 11 News but would only give a brief, off-camera statement as the actress says the attack, in which the man also threatened to kill her, 'changed her life forever', saying: 'I don't walk outside my house.'

The actress ominously added: 'I think that it's entirely possible that the next word I hear about this guy is that he's killed a female.'

Pauley Perrette (left, pictured with Emily Kaiser Wickersham) says she isn't walking around outside her home now that the homeless man that attacked her has been freed from a psychiatric institution

Neighbors in Perrette's area are being warned that David Merck (pictured) has been released from a psychiatric ward and is back on the streets in their area

News that homeless David Merck was released from an institution, and was back in the area, has those in Perrette's Hollywood neighborhood worried, and on watch for him.

'Of course we're not happy about it, but there is nothing the police can do unless he attacks again,' one neighbor told the local station.

A Facebook post, posted to the Franklin Village Hollywood page, warns residents to be on alert for Merck.

'This is David Merck. He was just released from jail for attacking actress Pauley Perrette a couple years ago here in Hollywood. He is currently staying around the franklin and argyle intersection.

'Pauley isn’t on FB, but she asked me to post this and let her neighborhood know how dangerous she feels David Merck is. He tried to kill her, and she was not the first female he attacked. Please be careful if you’re in the Hollywood area', the post concludes.

The actress opened up about the traumatizing incident in 2016, about a year after the attack happened outside her Hollywood home.

'There were a lot of feelings and a lot of emotions, but I feel like at the end of it all, as strange as it sounds, if that incident had to happen in the universe, I feel like it had to be me,' Perrette said in an interview with People.

'I feel like it was supposed to be me somehow because I have a lot of experience working with the homeless, working with the mentally ill. This instance, de-escalation that had to happen right then.'

She later added: 'I think whatever the circumstances are, when you almost get killed, when someone almost kills you, and you’re alive, and you walk away, it really gives you a lot of perspective.'

Perrette also credited her 'faith' with getting her through the 'extremely traumatic' incident.

'I feel like it was supposed to be me somehow because I have a lot of experience working with the homeless,' said Perrette at an event in LA on Sunday (David Merck at the time of the attack with Perrette's sketch of him left - the drawing helped the police catch him)

Pauley Perrette (above) spoke about being attacked by a homeless man back in 2016, a year after he attacked her and threatened to kill her in November of 2015

Perrette also wrote about the attack on Twitter.

She wrote that she was walking on the street near her home when Merck allegedly struck her on the nose and forehead while threatening to kill her.

'There was an empty garage behind me and I knew if he got me in there I was dead,' wrote Perrette.

The NCIS star said the man kept telling her his name was 'William' and warning her not to forget it.

Eventually, she said, she started speaking to the man, and said: 'William's a very beautiful name, I have a nephew called William.'

At that point, he told her to 'get out of here,' but not before hitting her once more.

Perrette (left on NCIS, right her account of the attack) previously said: '[W]hen someone almost kills you, and you’re alive, and you walk away, it really gives you a lot of perspective'

After the ordeal Perrette noted that a passerby ignored her as she lay on the ground.

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

That man later reached out and apologized to Perrette, who admitted that his reaction was just a 'misunderstanding.'

Perrette later drew a sketch of the suspect for police, which helped lead to his arrest.