Police seek man who stabbed two people Thursday at the Porter Square Halal Guys
This man is believed by police to be involved in an incident Thursday that left two people with stab wounds.
Police hope the public can help identify a person of interest in multiple assaults in Cambridge and Boston, including the nonfatal stabbing of two people Thursday in Porter Square.
The man police seek is described as black with gold dreads. He was wearing white pants and a black hoodie under a black jacket with fur on the hood and a black backpack.
“Residents should call 911 immediately if they ever feel threatened or observe any suspicious activity,” police said in a 6:40 p.m. Tuesday email.
In the incident last week, police got a call at 7:35 p.m. from the Halal Guys eatery at 15 White St. in the Porter Square Shopping Center, with the sounds of a struggle in the background in which “someone keeps yelling ‘Get back,’” according to scanner reports. Officers arrived to find two people stabbed with a knife, at least one of whom was a Halal Guys worker.
One was stabbed in the stomach and the other twice in an arm. “I’ve got a good amount of blood here,” an officer said.
While the victims were being taken by ambulance to Massachusetts General Hospital, police found video showing the man in the Porter Square T stop. Police recovered the knife quickly where the man had been spotted leaving it; but because there was no sign the man left the station, by 8:25 p.m. police were searching the station’s emergency exits.
They then shifted their attention to Harvard Square, where two people said they’d been a victim of an earlier unarmed robbery by the same man seen in the MBTA video. According to scanner reports, they’d been robbed of a phone.
Anyone with information about suspect can call police anonymously at (617) 349-3370 or online at cambridgepolice.org/tips. The police nonemergency line is (617) 349-3300.
This individual is very similar in appearance to someone who has been allowed to roam freely and menacingly for months throughout the Harvard Square T Station, including riding around in the entire station – on both sides of the fare gates – on a stolen rental “blue bike.” He has accosted, harassed and threatened the public in the station repeatedly, for months. Bono witnessed this individual assault someone boarding the Red Line in Porter Square as he exited. On calling the transit police, the dispatcher seemed eager to do absolutely nothing about it. On arriving in Harvard Square, Bono learned that T Inspectors and “Red Coats” there were totally familiar with this individual, and they *laughed* at the suggestion that something could be done about this individual, as if it were ridiculous to think that anyone associated with the MBTA or their police could ever do anything about anything.
Bono was finally able to have a conversation over the phone with an apparent T police officer, who – as it turned out -had nothing particularly relevant or helpful to say or add. An email with a cell phone photo sent to someone he described as an “[MBTA Transit Police] Detective” went unanswered. I don’t believe these are the same individuals, actually, but it is worrying that the MBTA and their police and station staff are evidently unwilling to do anything about dangerous individuals terrorizing and even assaulting T riders… Why is that?? Why do they always wait to do anything about repeatedly-reported dangerous individuals (I had called about the individual once before) until someone gets stabbed, seriously hurt or worse?? (Lewiston, Maine, comes readily to mind.) The police always ask for our “cooperation” *after* something like this has happened. It would be nice if they would occasionally help us out – and co-operate with *US* – BEFORE people have been completely terrorized or innocent people have been stabbed, or worse.
Por Bono Publico I
Since the pandemic, all police enforcement in Cambridge has ground to a halt. Are they all hiding at Sixth St.?