Student Reports Another Assault

After learning that a student was groped in Harvard Square Friday night, a second graduate student reported that she was assaulted in Harvard Yard around the same time.

The student told police Tuesday night that she had been groped in Harvard Yard last Friday at 8:30 p.m., the time that another graduate student reported that she was assaulted on Holyoke Street, according to Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) spokesperson Steven G. Catalano.

The second victim from Friday told police she was walking in Tercentenary Theater at around 8:45 p.m. when a male riding a bicycle stopped beside her, groped her and rode away toward Canaday Hall, Catalano said.

Catalano said the victim reported the incident after HUPD sent out a community advisory about the Holyoke Street incident Tuesday afternoon and she realized she had been groped around the same time as the other victim.

In that incident, a graduate student told police she had been groped by a man on a bicycle at the intersection of Holyoke and Mount Auburn Streets.

Catalano said HUPD has not determined if the two assaults are related.

“We’re strongly looking for a connection,” Catalano said. “It was the same area and by bike. There’s no other way to connect the incidents by suspect alone.”

The victim in the Holyoke Street incident could not provide a detailed suspect description.

But the student who was groped in the Yard described her assailant as a white male, late teens or early 20s, with a pale complexion, dark shoulder-length wavy hair, a stocky build, a wide face, wearing a baseball cap and bright colored clothing.

The Holyoke Street incident is under the jurisdiction of the Cambridge Police Department, while HUPD is investigating the one in Harvard Yard.

“We are coordinating our response to find out the person or persons responsible for these incidents,” Catalano said. “We are aggressively working together to solve the crimes.”

“The positive is that something generated from the advisory,” he said. “It served as a warning but it also served to motivate the victim to report this.”

Catalano said it is crucial for victims to report crimes because HUPD can use the information in their investigations.

Immediate reporting led to the Jan. 20 arrest of Harvard custodian Geremias Cruz Ramos on assault charges.

“The victim used her cell phone right on the scene and we were able to make an arrest,” Catalano said. “We strongly encourage victims to report crime as soon as possible.”

HUPD will not send out a community advisory for this incident, Catalano said, because much of the information would be a rehash of yesterday’s advisory.

“[Advisories] notify the community about the incident that occurs, but more importantly, what community members need to do to keep themselves safe,” he said. “The information about how to keep safe is still the exact information from yesterday. We feel that the notification of a second incident is best suited right now through the press.”

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.