Two Stabbed Near Quad

A series of violent crimes, punctuated by two stabbings, hit the Quad area early last week but miscommunication between local and Harvard police delayed a warning to students until six days after the initial incident.

According to the Cambridge Police Department (CPD), on two separate evenings—Feb. 8 and 12—an unidentified suspect stabbed an adult victim on streets near the Quad. A third, unrelated incident occurred Feb. 9 when a different suspect stole a woman’s pocketbook around midnight.

CPD spokesperson Frank D. Pasquarello said police have made no arrests in the the incidents.

The Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) did not e-mail an advisory to the community—its standard safety procedure—to warn of the robberies until Friday afternoon and many students have yet to receive the forwarded notice from their respective House masters, senior tutors or proctors.

Pasquarello said CPD sent an advisory to HUPD on Wednesday evening, but HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano said he never received it.

“There was some delay in getting information from Cambridge Police,” Catalano said. “We are instituting procedures so that doesn’t occur again.”

According to the HUPD advisory, on Feb. 8 around 6:20 p.m., at 65 Martin St., the suspect—described as a 5-ft. 6-inch tall white male around 16 years of age—attacked his victim with a folding knife.

Pasquarello said yesterday the victim from the first incident remains hospitalized, but that the stab wounds are not life-threatening.

The second related incident occurred around 6:50 p.m. on Feb. 12, when a suspect of the same description attacked and stabbed a victim between 14 and 16 Holly Ave.

According to Pasquarello, the second victim has been released from the hospital.

Catalano said that the adult victims were not affiliated with the University.

In the third unrelated incident, which occurred on Linnean Street near the Garden Street intersection around 12:40 a.m. on Feb. 9, a black male reportedly threw the female victim to the ground, grabbed her handbag and fled the scene in a small, red motor vehicle.

Cabot House Master James H. Ware said he first learned of the incidents when he received the Feb. 14 advisory.

“They are very worrisome, especially the incidents in which the assailant attacked the victims with a knife,” Ware wrote in an e-mail. “I have cautioned our students to walk home with friends or take the shuttle after dark.”

Ware sent an e-mail to Cabot House residents yesterday afternoon—a week after two of the robberies and 48 hours after HUPD issued its advisory—warning them about the incidents.

Currier House Master William A. Graham wrote in an e-mail that he too first learned about the incident Friday. Residents of Currier House said they received the advisory on Friday.

Pforzheimer House Master James J. McCarthy described the incidents as “disturbing,” but said House officials tried to inform students as quickly as possible.

“I presume that most Houses have the same policy we do—spreading the word immediately on our House e-mail lists,” McCarthy wrote in an e-mail. “We would welcome any initiative that would expedite the conveyance of such information to the houses.”

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