An 18-hour standoff ended Saturday at 1 p.m. with the arrest of Princiano Faustin, 51, in his apartment in The Port neighborhood, Cambridge police said.
With the arrest, residents of the 61 apartments at 243 Broadway were able to return to their homes after being either asked to evacuate as police tried to oust Faustin without injury – or forced to flee when pepper spray was later used by police and spread through the building.
Police first interacted with Faustin in Central Square at approximately 6:40 p.m. Friday when where he was “swinging two large machete-type knives around at a bus stop and slashed a bystander in the head,” police spokesperson Robert Reardon said. The victim was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital shortly with nonlife-threatening injuries.
Officers ran after Faustin, who kept swinging the knives and “refusing verbal commands from officers and multiple times yelling that he wanted officers to shoot him,” Reardon said. “As he made movements toward a crowded park, officers tried to subdue the suspect by hitting him multiple times” using a weapon called the 40 mm Less-Than-Lethal Launcher.
The weapon failed to stop Faustin, who made it to his apartment building and barricaded himself inside.
“Over the course of 18 hours, officers worked with our crisis negotiators, mental health clinicians and judicial partners in an effort to resolve the situation peacefully,” Reardon said.
Though at first Faustin could be seen pacing through the window at 243 Broadway, after a while he pulled the shades and police lost their view, according to scanner reports. At around 2 a.m., “after a prolonged period of nonengagement from the suspect, officers deployed a pepper ball through a window in an effort to prompt compliance,” Reardon said.
“Unfortunately, the irritant impacted more than the intended unit and circulated through the building’s shared ventilation system,” Reardon said. It also failed to bring Faustin’s surrender.
Police secured an arrest warrant and took Faustin safely into custody shortly before 1 p.m. Saturday for arraignment in Cambridge District Court on multiple related charges “at a later date,” Reardon said. Also left unclear Saturday was how police finally got into Faustin’s apartment, his condition at the time and whether he struggled during arrest. Reardon believed Faustin went from the apartment building to a hospital for evaluation and was unsure if it would delay an arraignment, which could be as soon as Monday.
“He was not injured during the arrest,” Reardon said in response to those questions. “A warrant is always preferable when there is an opportunity to get one. Seeking a warrant did not delay his apprehension and could prevent some potential legal challenges later on.”
Several residents of 243 Broadway – a building run by the affordable-housing developer Just A Start – were angry overnight at the length of the standoff or the shock of the gas reaching them, causing pain, sickness and the need to flee their homes.
One family on the third floor was exposed to the gas for five to 10 minutes, said a man who described trying to escape. “I vomited so many times,” he said, sitting on the sidewalk with his back on the brick building. “I was trying to push my father’s wheelchair. The police should have notified us.”
The use of gas was also addressed Saturday by Reardon.
“We understand that the use of chemical agents, particularly in shared residential buildings, raises concern. Every use of force by this department is reviewed, and that review is already underway in this case. While we support the difficult decisions made by officers in real time under stressful and unpredictable circumstances, we also recognize that we must continuously evaluate our tactics – especially when vulnerable community members are impacted,” Reardon said.
“Our goal is always the preservation of life, the safety of all residents and the peaceful resolution of dangerous incidents. We will remain transparent in our process and committed to learning from each incident to improve our response moving forward,” Reardon said.
A previous incident involving a resident and knife ended in death Jan. 4, 2023, with huge ramifications for police in the city – including leading to the introduction of body-worn cameras. Law enforcement in Cambridge has also seen more use of unarmed co-response since that time to situations of emotional crisis. In the 2023 incident in Cambridgeport, the officer who shot Arif Sayed Faisal fatally told investigators he believed the 20-year-old man intended to commit “suicide by cop.”
Though the standoff in The Port began at around 6:50 p.m. Friday, according to scanner reports, senior police officials weren’t on the scene for many hours. Commissioner Christine Elow and police superintendent Frederick Cabral arrived until after 2:30 a.m. Saturday.
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