Police Make Arrest After ‘Potential Stabbing’ Near Law School

UPDATED: October 8, 2015, at 2:43 a.m.

Police arrested a man on Wednesday evening after receiving a report of a “potential stabbing” near Harvard Law School’s Cambridge campus.

Harvard police officers responded to a report of a fight behind the Harvard-Epworth United Methodist Church at 1555 Massachusetts Ave. shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Steven G. Catalano, a Harvard University Police Department spokesperson, wrote in an emergency campus notification message.

Officers observed two men, one with blood on his face and standing over the other, who was lying on the ground. The first man, who is unaffiliated with Harvard, fled the scene when approached by police, who observed that he may have carried a knife, Catalano wrote.

“After a lengthy foot pursuit” and locating him in a Follen Street backyard, Catalano wrote, officers from HUPD, the Cambridge Police Department, and Transit Police placed the first man under arrest for “outstanding warrants.” They did not find a knife there after a search.

When officers returned to the scene of the initial fight, the other man had disappeared. According to Catalano, it remains unclear if a stabbing had in fact occurred or how the man was injured.

Harvard initially issued an emergency alert just after 7 p.m. on Wednesday indicating that police officers had responded to a call reporting a “potential stabbing” at 1555 Massachusetts Ave. and were searching the area. A subsequent alert described the suspect as a white male with dreadlocks wearing a yellow sweatshirt and jeans.

Officials lifted shelter-in-place instructions for campus just after 7:30 p.m.

—Staff writer Andrew M. Duehren can be reached at andy.duehren@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @aduehren.