Cambridge Man Arrested after Attempting to Rob Students, Shooting at Officer

A Cambridge man was arrested early Saturday morning after shooting a gun at a Cambridge Police Officer and attempting to rob three Harvard freshmen at gunpoint on Brattle Street, according to reports from the Cambridge Police Department and Harvard University Department.

Kai Robert Kruger, a 21 year-old Cambridge resident, was arrested at approximately 2:05 a.m. for armed robbery and assault with attempt to murder after holding the students up, fleeing the scene, and firing a gun at the CPD officer who pursued him on foot, the CPD reported. The three students and the officer were unharmed.

One of the victims, who asked to remain anonymous, said that he and his friends were on their way to purchase food when the suspect approached them and held them at gunpoint.

While on a routine patrol in the area, a CPD officer observed the three students and the suspect, who was "acting suspiciously," according to a CPD press release. When the officer stopped to investigate, the suspect fled across Brattle Street towards a construction site, near Crema Café.

The officer immediately chased after the suspect, and as he came around the fencing at the construction site, the suspect stopped at the top of a set of stairs, turned around, and fired a shot, which missed the officer, according to the CPD release.

The suspect turned to flee, then but fell down the stairs and the officer was able to disarm him and take him into custody without incident, according to CPD, which then cordoned off the area.

This incident was the sixth armed robbery on or close to the Harvard campus in two weeks and the third that involved Harvard affiliates. Following the armed robbery of a non-Harvard affiliate on Thursday morning at 2:45 a.m., HUPD added additional officers on patrol and "increased visibility" in and around the Yard, according to a community advisory that HUPD sent to Harvard affiliates yesterday afternoon.

In light of the recent upswing of robberies, a group of students started an online petition entitled "It's Time for More Than Just Another Community Advisory" Friday.

"We know that Harvard is in an urban area, so it's natural [for robberies] to occur outside the campus, but when it occurred inside the Yard, it is a problem," said one petition signer, Atul Bhattarai '14.

Bhattarai said that although he thought Harvard Yard should still remain open during the day, "there is no reason to have an open campus at night."

As of midnight on Saturday, the petition had collected 23 signatures.

—Staff writer Sirui Li can be reached at sli@college.harvard.edu.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: November 14, 2010

An earlier version of the Nov. 13 news article "Cambridge Man Arrested after Attempting to Rob Students, Shooting at Officer" incorrectly stated that the man arrested by the Cambridge Police Department was Kai Robert Grozier. In fact, his name is Kai Robert Kruger.