Shots Fired Near Leverett

A late-night shooting near Leverett Towers on Saturday left no one injured and the police seeking a known suspect in an incident that sent rumors flying across campus and spooked neighbors of the alleged gunman.

Thirty minutes earlier, an unrelated shooting about 10 blocks east of campus resulted in two arrests but no injuries.

In the shooting near Leverett, a black man wearing a gray jacket or shirt fired a round of shots at 10:30 p.m. on Athens Street—which runs parallel to DeWolfe Street and Banks Street by Leverett Towers—said Frank T. Pasquarello, spokesman for the Cambridge Police Department (CPD).

Pasquarello said officers responded to 27 Athens St. and interviewed a woman, thought to be the intended target of the gunshots, who had been visiting a friend on that block. Officers reported that the woman had been talking to a friend of the suspect when the suspect allegedly became belligerent.

“The suspect started kicking [her] car,” Pasquarello said, adding that the suspect and the victim knew each other beforehand. “He then went upstairs, returned with a firearm and allegedly shot at the female as she was driving up the street.”

According to Pasquarello, the suspect, who is unaffiliated with Harvard, and the woman both live on Athens Street near where the shooting occurred.

A CPD officer on the scene, who deferred official comment to Pasquarello, told The Crimson Saturday night that he believed the suspect was intoxicated at the time of the shooting, but Pasquarello could not confirm that fact.

However, Pasquarello said that the suspect’s arrest is pending a warrant that CPD believes Cambridge District Court will grant them this morning.

“We know who the suspect is,” he said, “but we can’t release the name until we get the warrant [for his arrest].”

An Athens Street resident, who just moved to the area on Sept. 15, said last night that she heard and witnessed the chain of events from her window.

The neighbor, who asked that her name not be used because the gunman is still at large and thought to be living on her street, said she initially assumed the exchange she overheard between a female and a male talking outside was harmless.

“At first I thought they were students who were drunk, but the argument got worse,” she said. The man, whom she said appeared to be intoxicated, kept repeating the phrases, “Who are you calling drunk? Who’s been drunk? Nobody here is drunk. Who are you saying is drunk?” according to the neighbor.

She said the female’s mother then intervened.

“I knew something was wrong when the woman said to get away from her daughter,” the neighbor said.

The neighbor said she then looked out the window and witnessed two men “struggling with each other.” She said she was not sure how the second man became involved in the argument, but he appeared to be defending the woman.

About 15 minutes later, the neighbor said she heard eight or 10 gunshots.

“I was sitting there, frozen,” said the neighbor, who said she thought about calling the police but decided not to. “It was a shock. You’d think it was a Saturday night brawl, but it didn’t seem to be ordinary circumstances.”

Other residents of Athens Street, who also wanted to remain anonymous to protect their identities, said that despite this incident, the area is usually safe.

“I think it’s a fluke,” one Athens Street resident said, adding that knowing the suspect is still at large was unsettling. “It’s very disconcerting to have him wandering around here.”

Back at Harvard, dozens of students had witnessed or heard the gunshots of the Athens Street shooting.

Daniel S. Anderson ’06 was walking down the concrete path toward Dunster and Mather when he heard eight gunshots behind him.

“People scattered and started running, toward DeWolfe Street and towards me,” he said. “Other people also thought they were gunshots. I called HUPD and they were there in literally under one minute.”

Anderson said he saw at least two Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) cars, an unmarked police car, CPD cars and a police truck arrive on the scene moments later. An ambulance also arrived.

Junior roommates Kate B. Yearwood and Mo C. McCaffery of Quincy House, were two of the many students within earshot of the incident who fled once the gun was fired.

They were walking past Leverett Towers when the incident occurred.

“We heard yelling and then the shots,” Yearwood wrote in an e-mail, “and we started running.”

Thirty minutes before the Athens Street shooting, a CPD officer patrolling the area about 10 blocks east of campus heard several unrelated gunshots, Pasquarello said. The officer then investigated the intersection of Howard and Callender Streets, found no victims and observed a speeding car leaving the scene.

The officer pulled the car over, talked to the occupants and performed a search of the vehicle.

“The officer recovered two loaded firearms and arrested two individuals for illegal possession of firearms,” said Pasquarello, who did not have access yesterday to the names of the two people arrested.

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.