Suspect In Alleged Hate Crime Apprehended

The Cambridge Police Department (CPD) apprehended a 25-year-old man early yesterday who detectives believe is responsible for committing a hate crime against a Muslim undergraduate nearly two weeks ago.

CPD detectives located Benjamin Bargeil, 25, formerly of Seattle, around midnight yesterday.

After an interview at CPD headquarters, he was arrested at 3 a.m. and charged with two counts of assault and battery and civil rights violations.

According to the police report, Bargeil admitted to detectives that he was present at the scene of the Sept. 19 assault, but said the Harvard senior who was injured was not the intended victim of his aggression.

Bargeil's statement differs with the victim's report. The student told police he was on his way home from the Islamic prayer room in Canaday Hall when two men attacked him from behind, punching and kicking him. The victim received stitches to close a head wound sustained in the attack.

The event was the second attack on a Harvard undergraduate in 72 hours, and led to fears that skinhead-related violence was on the rise in the Harvard Square area.

In the first assault, early on the morning of Sept. 17, a group of seven men harassed three Quincy House students outside Let's Go Travel on Mt. Auburn St. The students who were attacked described the seven men as "intoxicated skinheads." One student, Adam R. Kampff '02, received five stitches after one assailant hit him in the head with a plastic recycling bin.

CPD detectives who were investigating the incident in the Square Sunday night said they received information about the identities of the assailants, according to the police report.

According to the report, an unnamed informant in the Pit described two men believed to be involved in the incident, one of whom went by the name "Ben." The informants told police that both of the people might be found near the Anderson Bridge on the Charles River.

The detectives went to the river, where they said they spotted an individual on a bicycle matching one of the men's descriptions.

The bicyclist stopped, apparently thinking the detectives were friends of his. The police asked his name.

The suspect told detectives that his name was "Ben," and police soon determined that he was Bargeil. The police report does not indicate if Bargeil is a skinhead.

The man led police to a makeshift campsite between Anderson and Eliot bridges.

The campsite contained seven males and two females, according to a Massachusetts State Police (MSP) report written by trooper Robert Moore.

CPD detectives determined that one of the men at the campsite, Michael D. Dupont, 25, of 4 Irving St. in Hudson, Mass., had an outstanding warrant in Marlboro District Court. According to the CPD report, Dupont was transferred to the MSP barracks in Brighton for processing.

Investigators said that Bargeil consented to an in-depth interview at Cambridge police headquarters. In that interview, Bargeil is said to have denied that the Sept. 19 assault was a hate crime, telling police that the victim was caught up in the middle of another fight.

The report states Bargeil told police that he and an unnamed friend asked a person for money near St. Paul's Church on Bow Street. When the person refused to give them money and called Bargeil a "slob," Bargeil said he intended to hit the person but the victim "got in the way," according to the report.

Following the interview at CPD headquarters, Officer John Poirier placed Bargeil under arrest. Bargeil is being held without bail at the Middlesex County Correctional Facility in Cambridge.

Although CPD has apprehended one suspect, the investigation into the September assault is still ongoing, according to CPD spokesperson Frank D. Pasquarello.

"We are actively pursuing a second individual in relation to this incident and we're confident that the second individual will eventually be brought to justice," Pasquarello said.

He said a second arrest is expected within the next few days.

The victim of the assault declined to comment through his spokesperson, Zayed M. Yasin '02, president of the Harvard Islamic Society (HIS).

Speaking as president of HIS, Yasin praised the arrest.

"If this is the person responsible... we're very happy that the Cambridge police have found him and we hope that this will be the end of this situation and these types of things in Cambridge," Yasin said.

If convicted on all the charges, Bargeil could face up to 22 and a half years in a state prison, plus a fine of up to $11,500.

--Staff Writer Garrett M. Graff can be reached at ggraff@fas.harvard.edu