Police are investigating a sexual assault reported Thursday in the Harvard Square area.
The victim was walking “in the vicinity of Harvard Square” when two people wearing black ski masks and gloves approached and forced the victim into a nearby alley, police said, providing no further details. The assault took place in the “night or late evening,” Cambridge police spokesperson Bob Reardon Jr. said. Few details are being shared to “protect the integrity of the investigation and, most importantly, the privacy of the victim.”
Though police are not specifying time or place, Reardon offered an assurance that the assault was not “something that happened right in the middle of the busy, bustling square while people were walking.”
Scanner reports suggest that the assault took place close to midnight and on the outskirts of the square toward the Riverside neighborhood.
The victim was later taken to a local hospital for medical evaluation and treatment, police said.
The Cambridge Police Department has assigned extra patrols to the area as a precaution, according to a Friday emailed alert, and reminds residents to call 911 immediately if they feel threatened or see suspicious activity.
There were nine rapes by strangers reported in the city’s 2023 crime report, the most recent that is available, up from seven in the previous two years and five in 2020. Of the 11 sex-related crimes reported through April 28 this year in police data, three were domestic assaults, six were acquaintance rapes and two were contact incidents. “The number of stranger-to-stranger rapes reported each year in Cambridge – typically between one and 10 – remains extremely low,” police said in their latest monthly report.
Police put out press releases warning the public of sexual assaults at least twice last year: In May for an incident that took place within an Alewife office building and in June for an incident in Central Square. The last reported sexual assault near Harvard Square was in October 2023 for an incident on Lesley University’s campus, The Harvard Crimson said Friday.
As police investigate, they “strongly” encourage anyone with information related to this incident, including surveillance or dashcam video, to call the Criminal Investigations Unit anonymously at (617) 349-9151 or online at cambridgepolice.org/TIPS.
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