Unconscious Man Found Outside Peabody Terrace

An unconscious man was found on a walkway in front of Peabody Terrace at 1:15 a.m. on Friday, according Harvard shuttle operator Melvin Washington, Jr. The person’s identity and current medical condition remain unknown at this point.

Washington said he picked up a regular passenger from Memorial Hall at 1 a.m. as he usually does about three nights a week. Within 15 minutes, he pulled up in front of Peabody Terrace where the passenger lives, he said.

But as the shuttle came to a stop beside the Peabody Terrace building sign, Washington said he and the passenger noticed a man lying by a trash can on the walkway. Washington and the passenger left the shuttle and approached the body, asking the man, who was curled up on his right side in a fetal position, if he was okay.

After seeing only a slight hand movement and feeling no pulse, they called 911.

The two carried the 5-foot-6 body several yards across the sidewalk and laid him on the floor of the shuttle, placing newspapers underneath his head, Washington said. Within minutes, the Harvard University Police arrived. They were quickly joined by the Cambridge Fire Department and paramedics.

Washington said they did not find any form of identification on the person, though he said paramedics estimated the man was 25 years of age.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano declined requests for information about the incident. Neither the passenger nor the Cambridge Fire Department could be reached for comment.

“Whether he was a Harvard student or not, he was too young,” Washington said. “I couldn’t leave him like that.”

Washington called for another driver to cover his route for the time that he and the passenger stayed with the body.

Washington recalls seeing vomit still trickling down the side of the man’s mouth into a pile by his face. His knuckles, Washington said, were “red like a lobster,” and he was wearing only a dark thin jacket with jeans and sneakers. The man’s eyes were still open, Washington added.

“My boss said we did the right thing,” Washington said Friday evening.

—Staff writer Xi Yu can be reached at xyu@college.harvard.edu.