Med School Building Vandalized

Gang activity is suspected in a case of vandalism at a Harvard Medical School building located in the school’s Longwood campus.

According to a spokesman for the Boston Police Department, officers were dispatched to 641 Huntington Avenue, the location of the Harvard Department of Global Health and Social Medicine, at approximately 8 a.m. on Friday. Upon arrival, the officers spoke to an employee of the G. Greene Construction Co.—which is currently commissioned to renovate the building—who pointed out 11 separate tagging sites on the building.

BPD spokesman Joseph Zanoli said that the vandalism is believed to have taken place between 6 p.m. on Thursday and 6 a.m. on Friday.

The incident is currently being investigated by the Boston Regional Intelligence Center (BRIC), which “focuses on the intersection of high impact criminal activities, locations, and people,” according to the Boston Police Department Web site.

Zanoli said that BRIC’s involvement with this case suggests that the incident was the result of gang activity.

“It is an intelligence gathering unit and they primarily investigate gang-related crime,” Zanoli said. “The officer who was called there made some observations and decided it would best be investigated [by BRIC].”

The building is part of the Longwood Medical Center, a group of medical and academic institutions—including Harvard Medical School—located in the Roxbury neighborhood of Boston.

Representatives of G. Greene construction Co. could not be reached for comment. Members of the Medical School’s security office declined to comment on the vandalism.

The building also houses Partners in Health, a Harvard-affiliated non-profit organization, but both the Department of Global Health and Social Medicine and Partners in Health are temporarily located at the Prudential Tower in downtown Boston for the 2008-2009 academic year due to the ongoing renovations.

—Staff writer Emily J. Hogan can be reached at ejhogan@fas.harvard.edu.