Harvard Issues Shelter-in-Place Order After Man Brandishes Knife Near JFK Park

Harvard police detained a person wielding a knife in the Square just after 12:20 p.m. Wednesday, lifting a campus shelter-in-place order after less than an hour.

The Harvard University Police Department instructed affiliates to shelter in place in an 11:40 a.m. emergency alert, after police began searching for a person with a knife who was traveling on South Street and heading toward JFK Street.

A second alert, sent roughly five minutes later, said that the person was on a bicycle. HUPD and Cambridge police were continuing to search the area around JFK Street and John F. Kennedy Memorial Park as of 11:50 a.m. The search then expanded to Brattle Street, according to an alert sent less than ten minutes later.

Officers approached the suspect in Cambridge Commons and reported the man fled toward the JFK bridge and Harvard’s athletics complex, according to an update sent at 12:17 p.m. The pursuit continued, and the suspect was detained near the John W. Weeks Memorial Bridge around 12:24 p.m.

The alerts instructed affiliates to shelter in place if they were in the area, and to avoid the area otherwise. Affiliates inside the Harvard Kennedy School, directly next to the search area, were barred from leaving the building after the threat was issued.

HUPD did not provide further detail on the incident.

Wednesday’s threat comes just weeks after HUPD issued a campus-wide shelter-in-place after a man brandished a knife inside Peet’s Coffee. Police arrested the man following an hours-long search that began at JFK Park.

—Staff writer Shawn A. Boehmer can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at shawnb.18. Follow him on X @ShawnBoehmer.

—Staff writer Claire A. Michal can be reached at [email protected] and on Signal at ClaireMichal.154.