Police are looking for a man who fired shots at a woman at Sherman and Stearns streets in Cambridge’s Neighborhood 9 at 10:58 a.m. Friday.
Six shots were heard, according to police scanner reports, and a “several” calls came in through 911 to report the incident: That a man on a bike “shot at a female on a bike, and the female kept going,” as one officer described it. No victims were found on the scene.
Later, police spokesperson Robert Reardon said that “preliminary information suggests that two or three persons had an altercation in the roadway, one of whom was possibly on a bike, during which at least one person fired multiple gunshots at another. All those involved fled the scene before officers arrived and are not believed to still be in the area, there are no known victims with gunshot wounds at this time.”
This is the seventh gunfire incident of the year, though only three of the incidents resulted in victims; there was one death in January. The most recent gunfire incident before Friday’s took place Oct. 6 in The Port neighborhood.
As police converged on the scene and searched for the shooter, Harvard University issued a short shelter-in-place order. The shooting took place near the schools’ Radcliffe Quad.
There is no “ongoing public safety risk,” police said in an emailed statement at 12:05 p.m.
In the confusion of the moment, police looked into reports of various people heading in various directions who may have been involved – toward Harvard Square, toward Danehy Park – and worked to clear locations such as parks and schools to ensure the shooter was not there.
“All of that was done as a precaution. Our officers were just trying to make sure that any major points of interest that would be a gathering spot for a lot of people are protected and that there is no risk to them there,” Reardon said. “We had no information that this person or people were headed to any of those locations – it was more just thinking where would a person go, what are some potentially densely populated locations.”
A single description of a suspect in the shooting was not clear. Scanner reports showed police interested in men of two descriptions. One was described as having long, black, curly hair, wearing a black vest, gray hoodie and black sweatpants; the other as just a white man wearing a red coat on a BMX bicycle.
Police have released a picture of a person of interest. “This individual is not currently wanted, but detectives are looking to speak with them,” Reardon said.
Anyone with information on the gunfire incident is asked to call detectives at (617) 349-3121 or anonymously through a tip line at (617) 349-9151 or online at cambridgepolice.org/TIPS.
This post was updated Oct. 24, 2025, to add comment from a police spokesperson and a photo of a person detectives want to talk with.
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