Police: Male Robbed at Knifepoint Along Cambridge Common

UPDATED: October 3, 2013, at 6:11 a.m.

An armed robbery occurred at knifepoint on Garden Street along Cambridge Common Monday evening, according to a community advisory issued by the Harvard University Police Department Tuesday afternoon.

At 8:25 p.m. Monday, the male victim, who is reported as not affiliated with the University, was approached by a male who drew a knife, placed it against the victim’s throat, and demanded his property. When the man resisted, two other males approached and began to punch and kick the victim, the advisory stated.

After this occurred, the victim fled from his attackers and called the Cambridge Police Department. He was not “seriously injured,” according to the advisory.

In an emailed statement to The Crimson, Daniel M. Riviello, spokesperson for the CPD, wrote that “after the robbery in the Common, CPD responded and identified a group of several individuals nearby who may have been involved.”

The victim did not want to participate in a “show-up” with the identified individuals—in which he would have to confirm whether or not they were his aggressors—so CPD will continue to investigate the case, Riviello wrote.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano wrote in an email that HUPD has increased the amount of patrols in Harvard Square in response to the incident.

The advisory was the second community advisory to be issued in the past four days, the first having announced the assault of three women in Cambridge last Saturday. HUPD also increased its patrols in the Square after that incident.

A Harvard alert was also released by HUPD last Saturday regarding the stabbing in JFK Park.

According to Riviello, both of those cases will continue to be investigated, the stabbing by the Massachusetts State Police and the assaults by CPD. Riviello wrote that CPD does not believe this latest robbery or the stabbing in JFK are related to the “two women who were robbed of their cell phones last week.”

Since the armed robbery did not occur on University property, HUPD has advised anyone with information about the case to contact CPD.

—Staff writer John P. Finnegan can be reached at finnegan@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @finneganspake.