Crowded Quad Shuttle Altercation Injures One

An undergraduate allegedly assaulted another student on the Quad Shuttle in front of Johnston Gate late Saturday night, in a fight that witnesses say started when a seemingly drunk male refused to get off the bus.

According to witnesses, as a packed 10:40 p.m. shuttle was about to leave Johnston Gate for the Quad, a male passenger began yelling at the shuttle driver.

One witness said that the individual, who was holding an open wine bottle, told the bus driver to start moving.

“He yelled and told the bus driver to go,” said Justin M. Orlosky ’09. “He said ‘shut the fucking door, let’s go.’ He was just very aggressive.”

When the shuttle driver said that the bus wouldn’t leave the Johnston Gate stop until the individual got off, the individual allegedly responded by saying, “We can stay here all night—I’m not moving.”

Gregory B. Michnikov ’06, who was also on the shuttle, said that other shuttle riders then became impatient and began yelling for the individual to get off the bus.

“A bunch of random people on the bus were just like ‘dude, shut up, get off the shuttle so that we can go,” said Michnikov, who is also a former Crimson business manager.

Witnesses said that the individual became enraged when one particular person called for him to get off the bus.

“Someone in the back told the guy to get off the bus,” said Orlosky. “And then the attacker said ‘who was that’...and he just lit up.”

The individual then allegedly stormed through the crowd to the back of the bus in search of the student who had called for his removal.

“He finally crawled through the people and attacked this one guy in the back [of the bus],” said Emily M. Parrott ’09, who was also on the shuttle. “You could tell he was drunk—he was holding a bottle.”

Witnesses said that the victim’s face became bloody as he was being attacked.

According to Parrott, other people on the bus tried holding the suspect back.

Obinna O. Orji ’08 expressed concern for the safety of people around the suspect.

“I didn’t want them to get hurt over some ignorance,” he said.

Orji then intervened to hold back the suspect.

“I just jumped in front of him, trying to hold him back. He started swinging at me but never connected.”

Neither the suspect or the victim’s name was released by police.

According to Harvard University Police Department Spokesman Steven G. Catalano, officers are still investigating the incident, and no arrests have been made.

“Upon arrival [to the incident], officers spoke with both a male and female undergraduate student who stated that they had been assaulted by another student on the shuttle bus,” he wrote in an e-mail. “The male student stated that after a verbal altercation the male student physically assaulted him by hitting him...the female student was pushed but was not injured. The incident is still under investigation.”

Catalano also wrote that the male victim was not badly injured.

“The victim recevied minor injuries (small laceration and bruise) but did not require medical attention.”

—Staff writer Reed B. Rayman can be reached at rrayman@fas.harvard.edu.