Youths Assault University Employee in the Yard

A daylight assault between Grays and Boylston Halls on Thursday marked the most recent incident in a recent string of juvenile crime in the Yard.

A University employee reported that three males of high school age assaulted him while he was walking in the Yard around 4 p.m., according to Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) spokesperson Steven G. Catalano.

The victim told police that one of the suspects attempted to strike him in the genital area, but the victim blocked the blow and kept walking past the suspects.

Before leaving the area, the suspects allegedly called the victim “faggot,” Catalano said.

No arrests have been made in the incident, which Catalano said is being classified as a hate crime because of the slur used by the suspects.

According to a community advisory sent by HUPD to members of the Harvard community on Friday, the incident may be linked to a Nov. 12 assault in front of Widener Library.

Unlike past community advisories, in Friday’s advisory HUPD did not provide physical descriptions of the suspects in either assault because they “received very vague suspect descriptions,” Catalano said.

In the Nov. 12 incident, five males of high school age approached a student and attempted to block his path, saying “I bet he’s gay” before leaving the area.

That same week, on Nov. 15, a Harvard undergraduate and another person were victims of what they called a “gay-bashing incident.”

In the Nov. 15 incident, the suspects approached the victims near Harvard Hall around 9:45 p.m. The victim said the suspects made comments to the victims such as “Faggot, you talkin’ trash?” and one of the suspects pretended to make slashing motions in the air with what the victim said appeared to be a knife.

In the Nov. 15 incident, victims reported eight 12- to 14-year-old black males, not high school students, as the perpetrators.

Catalano said HUPD does not believe the Nov. 15 incident—which resulted in one juvenile arrest—is related to the Nov. 12 and Dec. 12 incidents.

Securing the Yard

Besides these three incidents, the Yard has seen two other crimes in a little over a month.

On Nov. 13, a Cambridge Ridge and Latin School (CRLS) student was reportedly robbed by three black males and one black female of high school age in the Yard around 3:30 p.m., Catalano told The Crimson last month.

The following afternoon—in an incident that Catalano said is likely related to the first daylight robbery—a Harvard undergraduate was walking through the Yard near Widener Library when five black males of high school age asked the victim for his money and demanded to see his pockets.

One of the suspects stated that he had a gun and would shoot the victim. The suspects did not, however, display a gun.

Catalano said that no arrests have been made in the robberies and declined to comment on whether the robberies are linked to the Dec. 12 and Nov. 12 incidents because the investigation is ongoing.

But the recent string of crimes in the usually quiet Yard has lead HUPD to take extra precautions, Catalano said.

“Right now we’re paying more attention to the Yard and assigning more units to the Yard, with both plain-clothes and uniformed officers in the times these incidents have occurred,” he said.

Catalano said HUPD is also working with CRLS security and administration to prevent future incidents.

“We feel there are hundreds and hundreds of kids who cut through our Yard, and not all of them are bad kids,” Catalano said. “We don’t want to try to paint all of them in the same picture, we just want to try and identify the very small amount who are causing the problems.”

—Staff writer Jenifer L. Steinhardt can be reached at steinhar@fas.harvard.edu.