Cambridge police recorded 129 reports and 14 arrests between Monday, October 26 and Sunday, November 1, according to the department’s daily logs, which it posted on November 4. That is down from 146 reports and 24 arrests the week before. The entry most likely to stay with readers came at 11:56 p.m. Monday, when officers went to Cambridge and Prospect streets for a hit and run involving a vehicle and a person in a wheelchair. The victim had minor injuries and was taken to a nearby hospital. The log lists no arrest.
A charge is not a conviction. Everyone named is presumed innocent unless and until found guilty in court. Names, ages and charges are as the department printed them.
Threats and assaults
Police were called to Massachusetts Avenue at 5:23 p.m. Monday for a report that a person had been threatened with a knife. On Thursday evening a victim on Boardman Street told officers that a stranger threatened to stab them. A Craigie Street resident reported Thursday morning that someone had been sending threatening emails, which the department logged as extortion, and a Howard Street resident reported threats by text message. A Boardman Street resident reported harassing calls from someone disguising their voice.
On Tuesday a person on Prescott Street said a stranger pushed them, and an employee of a Massachusetts Avenue business said someone threw an object at them; neither was hurt. A victim at Douglass Street and Massachusetts Avenue was shoved in the chest during an argument Thursday night. On Friday evening a person in Kendall Square reported being struck by a bicycle and suffering a minor leg injury, a report the department logged as assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
The hours after Halloween night were the busiest for fights. Between 1 a.m. and 4:06 a.m. Sunday officers went to a Church Street business where a manager and customers reported trouble with an employee, to JFK Street where a victim said a stranger hit them in the back of the head, and twice to Massachusetts Avenue, once for a fight among people waiting for food and once for a person who said they were struck after being accused of stealing a scooter. At 11:27 a.m. Sunday a caller at Dana Street and Massachusetts Avenue reported that four people had assaulted another person during an argument. Halloween itself was the quietest day of the week in the log, with 11 entries; Tuesday was the busiest, with 31.
Crashes and hit and runs
Besides the wheelchair user struck Monday night, a pedestrian suffered minor injuries in a crash on Massachusetts Avenue on Tuesday morning that police logged as a crosswalk violation. Cyclists were hurt in crashes on Hamilton Street on Tuesday and on Marie Avenue and at Fern and Field streets on Wednesday, and a scooter rider was hurt at Brattle and Mason streets on Thursday. All were described as minor injuries. A crash on Trowbridge Street on Monday sent one person to the hospital with minor injuries, and a Boston resident will be summonsed for unlicensed operation after a crash on Main Street on Tuesday. On Thursday a driver at River Street and Putnam Avenue said another vehicle hit theirs and pushed it into a wall.
Thirteen reports involved vehicles struck by drivers who did not stop, most of them parked cars: on Memorial Drive, Green Street, Eaton Street, Acacia Street, Concord Avenue and Sixth Street on Tuesday alone, where one owner put the damage at $1,233.81, and later in the week on Robinson Street, Massachusetts Avenue, Exeter Park and at Brattle and Craigie streets.
Thefts
The largest loss of the week was reported Monday afternoon on Soden Street, where a resident said a parked vehicle was broken into and items valued at $15,400 were taken. Motorcycles were reported stolen Monday from outside businesses on Cambridge Street and Memorial Drive, and mopeds were taken from Western Avenue on Monday, from a Cherry Street parking lot on Thursday (valued at $1,200) and from outside a Prospect Street business the same day. A witness on Norfolk Street watched two people try to steal a moped on Wednesday, and early Saturday a moped rider on Main Street said a group tried to take the moped and the food that was on it. A vehicle was reported stolen at Massachusetts Avenue and Sellers Street late Thursday.
Six bicycles were reported stolen: a $4,000 bike from outside a New Street home, a $3,500 bike locked to a pole on Upland Road, a $2,000 bike on Porter Road, a $1,000 bike from a city bike post on Church Street, a $600 bike from a New Street basement garage and a $200 bike from a Wendell Street basement, where a $40 tire was taken from a second bike. A $300 electric scooter disappeared from a Porter Square rack. A $1,199 cell phone was reported stolen on Peabody Street, a purse was taken from a bus stop at Massachusetts Avenue and Pearl Street, and packages were taken on Massachusetts Avenue, Magazine Street, Rindge Avenue (twice) and CambridgePark Drive. License plates were stolen or damaged on Main Street, Haskell Street, Newtowne Court and Auburn Park.
Stores reported 16 shoplifting cases in which the suspect was gone before officers arrived, from $10.99 to $1,329.60. Six of them came from businesses on White Street.
Arrests
- Devon Reddick, 44, listed as unhoused, charged October 30 on Alewife Brook Parkway with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and unarmed robbery.
- Frederick Warner, 30, of Cambridge, charged October 29 at Massachusetts Avenue and Pearl Street with assault and battery after he was seen assaulting another person during a fight, according to the log.
- Edward Ake, 53, of Allston, charged October 29 with operating a motor vehicle with a suspended license, disorderly conduct and threats to commit a crime after a traffic stop at Cambridge and Hampshire streets.
- Roland Nichols, 31, of Somerville, charged October 26 with shoplifting by asportation and a trespass violation after a Massachusetts Avenue business reported $24 in stolen merchandise.
- Tashianna Gethers, 40, listed as unhoused, charged October 31 with defacing property after spray painting outside a Massachusetts Avenue business.
- Warrant arrests: Mark Elliott, 70, of Cambridge (six warrants from Boston and Cambridge district courts); Marsena Green, 33, of Cambridge (four Cambridge warrants); Janice Horton, 44, of Cambridge (three Cambridge warrants); Christopher MacInnes, 44, of Medford (three warrants from Chelsea and Cambridge); Kristyn McLean, 39, listed as unhoused (two Chelsea warrants); Michael Watkins, 62, of Cambridge (two Boston warrants); William Otero, 39, of Brookline (Boston); Everett Woodward, 38, listed as unhoused (Quincy); Peter Jules, 21, of Cambridge (Waltham).
Five people, none named in the logs, will be summonsed to Cambridge District Court: a Brookline resident for driving with a suspended registration, without a license and without insurance on Sidney Street; Boston residents for a number plate violation on Holyoke Street, for unlicensed operation on Main Street and, after a Halloween traffic stop at Massachusetts Avenue and Pearl Street, for driving with a suspended license, refusing to produce a license, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct; and a Cambridge resident as keeper of a disorderly house on Franklin Street.
Also in the logs
The Explosive Ordnance Unit inspected unattended packages on Auburn Street on Tuesday, Somerville Avenue on Wednesday, Garden Street on Thursday and at Mt. Auburn Street and Putnam Avenue on Friday. None was hazardous. Fraud reports were lighter than the week before: identity fraud on Museum Street and CambridgePark Drive, $248.76 in fraudulent bank charges reported on Cambridge Street, and a Melrose resident who found a fake online listing offering to rent a Shepard Street apartment they control. Break-ins were reported at a Mt. Auburn Street business and a CambridgePark Drive building, callers reported people throwing objects at cars at Eighth and Spring streets, and graffiti was documented twice on Huron Avenue, on a Main Street business, on a Somerville Avenue garage and on a Fresh Pond Place fence.
The department posts each day’s log, with incident numbers, on its news page; the week’s entries begin with October 26. Logs appear about eight days after the fact, so the first week of November should be posted around November 12.
