Cambridge Police Department Report Identifies Stabbing Suspect

The man accused of stabbing another man on Saturday morning near the intersection of Mt. Auburn and Holyoke Streets was identified by the police as Ivan Bacai, a 21-year-old resident of Malden, Mass., according to a Cambridge Police Department incident report.

A disturbance was reported in the area of Mass. Ave. and Dunster Street before the male victim, 36, was stabbed twice, once in the chest and another time in the lower abdomen at about 2:49 a.m.

Witnesses told police that a fight between the victim and two females took place. Then, three males came to the scene and allegedly attacked the victim.

Raymond Pina, the Cambridge police officer who reported the incident, wrote that he found a male with blood soaked clothing and a large gash “bleeding profusely” on the right side of his face when Pina arrived at Mass. Ave. and Holyoke Street.

According to the report, the victim was accompanied by two males, who stated “almost simultaneously”: “Man, he just got his ass kicked.”

Pina asked the victim to lift his shirt and confirmed a knife wound to the right side of the victim’s abdomen.

The victim was transported to a hospital and taken into surgery. At the time of the report, the victim was declared in “critical condition.”

The two males, age 19 and 39, described the suspect to Pina, who then reported the description over the police radio system. Shortly afterward, a male matching the description was stopped in front of the Hong Kong restaurant by another officer. An identification interview was conducted with both witnesses.

One witness told Pina that the victim was “somewhat sexually assaultive,” according to the report, stating that the victim tried to touch the two females.

The two females alledgedly started attacking the victim and shoved him to the ground. Then three males came running and began kicking the victim in the head, face, and lower parts of his upper torso, according to the two witnesses.

One witness stated that the males then fled up Holyoke Street toward Mass. Ave., while the two females fled down Mt. Auburn Steet toward Central Square.

The suspect was arrested and charged with armed assault to murder.

The incident is currently undergoing an “extremely active investigation” by the Cambridge Police Department.

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