State Police Investigate Monday Night Stabbing Near Harvard Square

Massachusetts State Police are investigating a stabbing that left one person injured at Longfellow Park late Monday night.

Cambridge police responded to a reported stabbing on the bike path along Memorial Drive near John F. Kennedy Street at 11 p.m. Monday, which later drew a response from MSP and the Harvard University Police Department.

The victim — a 20 year-old man — flagged down medical services with a flashlight, according to recordings of a dispatch call that were made public on two police scanner sites.

The man said he was stabbed once in the stomach while in a tent along the river, according to the dispatch call. He was later transported to a local hospital and is being treated for non-life-threatening wounds, according to a statement from MSP spokesperson Gregory Jones.

MSP could not confirm whether the stabbing occurred inside of a tent encampment near the river, though the dispatch call said that the victim was stabbed near Anderson Memorial Bridge before making his way across the street to Longfellow Park.

CPD confirmed that they had been aware of an encampment in the area previously. The department was not aware of any other incidents connected to Longfellow Park recently and has offered services to individuals through the department’s Family and Social Justice Section, according to a Tuesday statement from spokesperson Robert P. Reardon.

The scene was cleared by 12:30 a.m. Tuesday. The stabbing remains under investigation, though MSP believes it to be an isolated incident.

Cambridge has seen nearly a 30 percent increase in aggravated assaults — largely due to a rise in unprovoked assaults — since the beginning of 2025, compared to the same period last year, according to monthly data published by CPD. The monthly report notes Harvard Square as a “moderate hot spot” for violent crime.

Year-to-date aggravated assaults have also increased substantially since 2021, when they had already started to rise above prepandemic lows.

At least 66 of the nearly 200 incidents reported to CPD this year have resulted in an arrest. As of Tuesday, MSP had not made an arrest in connection with the Monday night stabbing.

—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.