Armed Quincy Intruder Caught After Chase

A knife-wielding intruder broke into a Quincy House dorm room at around 8 p.m. on Sunday and was chased to a nearby Harvard apartment complex where he was apprehended by police, according to witnesses and the Quincy House masters.

The break-in and the ensuing foot-chase resulted in no injuries, though “a small amount of cash” appeared to be missing from the room, according to an e-mail sent to Quincy’s junior students by acting House Masters Lee and Deb Gehrke.

The break-in, which occurred in Quincy 318, was witnessed by Justin M. Craig ’07 and Matthew P. Downer ’07, who live on the same floor and chased the suspect until he was arrested.

“I saw students chasing a person out of their room and into the hallway,” Downer said in a phone interview.

Downer said he gave chase as the suspect went down a stairway and left Quincy courtyard through the south gate that faces Leverett House. At that point the suspect pulled a knife and said, “I’m on drugs. Come closer and I’ll kill you.” Downer said he then called the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

Craig and Downer said that the chase led them to the Peabody Terrace apartment complex, where HUPD officers arrived and apprehended the suspect.

At one point, the suspect jumped over a gate at Mather House. Craig followed the suspect into the House while Downer, who was on his cell phone with HUPD at the time, ran around the side of the dormitory. Craig's roommate, Brandon R. Logigian ’07, said he followed the chase from about 20 yards behind.

Craig said the suspect was a 6’3” heavy-set black male wearing khakis and a blue and white striped shirt.

“He could have passed for a student,” Craig said. “At first, I thought they were playing Quincy Assassins.”

The residents of the room that was broken into declined to comment.

HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano said in a phone interview that because the suspect was still being booked, he could confirm only that a break-in had happened at Quincy and that an arrest had been made.

The Gehrkes wrote in their e-mail that they “are asking the building manager to do an immediate check on security precautions to determine how the individual may have entered the building and room.”

—Reed B. Rayman contributed to the reporting of this story.
—Staff writer Paras D. Bhayani can be reached at pbhayani@fas.harvard.edu.
—Staff writer Nan Ni can be reached at nni@fas.harvard.edu.