Summer School Students Report Indecent Assault

Two Harvard Summer School students have been victims of indecent assault and battery over the last week.

Yesterday around noon a student was approached in Brattle Square by an individual described by police as a Hispanic male between the ages of 30 and 40 wearing baggy blue jeans and a red and green colored baseball cap.

He asked the woman for directions, and as the victim was giving them to him, he began to grope her.

In a slightly similar case, a student standing in line at Au Bon Pain was assaulted Saturday. A white male, age 55-60, wearing chinos and a light colored, short sleeve shirt approached the victim and began to converse with her. The man asked to accompany the victim to the river, but she refused. He then grabbed and kissed her. She struggled free and fled towards the T station.

The attack prompted the Harvard University Police Department to issue a community advisory. In the wake of the attacks, HUPD plans to step up patrols near Brattle Square, according to spokesperson Peggy S. McNamara.

HUPD also sent out a community advisory after an armed robbery Tuesday at the rear of 175 North Harvard St. in Allston. The thief showed a knife and stole two laptop computers.

Described as a black male in his 30s, the suspect fled in a late '80s, four-door Oldsmobile with a red interior and a green-lettered Massachusetts plate on the rear.

A second black male was observed driving the vehicle. The suspect was additionally described as possibly being high.