HUPD Lifts Shelter-in-Place After Police Detain Man Armed With Machete

Police took a man armed with a machete into custody near Mount Auburn Hospital just before 10:30 a.m., ending a shelter-in-place order issued by the Harvard University Police Department at 9:45 a.m.

The man was taken into custody by Massachusetts State Police, according to Cambridge Police Department director of communications, Jennie Lopez. Lopez added that the man had been identified and was in State Police custody, but did not confirm whether he had been arrested.

Officers began searching for the man near JFK Park almost an hour before HUPD sent its first alert, according to an online police scanner. HUPD wrote in its initial alert that the man was involved in an aggravated assault and battery.

Lopez later confirmed that no one was injured and that the suspect had brandished the weapon.

HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the timing of the alert or the reported aggravated assault and battery.

Harvard police sent a series of four alerts as the search area shifted farther away from Harvard Yard. The initial search area was near Mount Auburn and Brattle streets but had shifted to Ash and Hawthorne streets by 10:14 a.m., according to a third HUPD alert.

By 10:21 a.m., more than eight police vehicles raced from the previous search area toward Mount Auburn Hospital, where the man was detained.

According to the scanner, the man was reported to have traveled from JFK Park toward University Road — next to the Charles Hotel — and entered a parking garage on the street.

Catalano declined to comment further, citing the ongoing investigation.

—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.