CAMBRIDGE POLICE DEPARTMENT

1996 ANNUAL REPORT

AGGRAVATED ASSAULT

Aggravated Assault describes an unlawful attack by one person upon another for the purpose of inflicting severe or aggravated bodily injury. This type of assault is usually accompanied by the use of a weapon or by means likely to produce death or great bodily harm. Attempts are included since it is not necessary that an injury result when a gun, knife, or other weapon is used which could and probably would result in serious personal injury if the crime were successfully completed.

Unlike murder, robbery, and other violent crime, assault is born in the heat of the moment. The motivation behind an assault is rarely personal gain, and the offender often later regrets the incident. Perhaps the most preventable violent crime, many assaults in the making are probably curtailed through the careful use of control and restraint. Very few robberies, in contrast, could be prevented by breathing deeply and counting to 10.

However, assault is a very serious crime because of the great risk of critical injury to the victim. Very often, blind luck or quick medical attention is all that separates an aggravated assault from a homicide.

The 18 percent decline in assaults from 1995 to 1996 is impressive. Assault has been on a general increase over the last 20 years. Between 1984 and 1989, it registered about 350 incidents per year; in 1990, it suddenly jumped 41 percent to an unprecedented 614 reports. It peaked at 643 in 1993; since then, it has declined each year. This year's statistic is the lowest since 1989.

A good portion of these fluctuations can be attributed to the frequency of which the crime is reported rather than the frequency of its actual occurrence. As domestic violence awareness has increased over the last decade, so has the willingness of domestic violence victims to report abuse to the police.

Despite advances made by domestic violence victim advocates in recent years, experts estimate that between 60 and 80 percent of domestic assaults are never reported to the police. Very likely, apathy, fear of police contact, embarrassment, and other factors also lead to underreporting of alcohol related fights, assaults between acquaintances, gang fights, and conflicts among the homeless. The result is that assault statistics must be viewed with extreme care.

Attempted Murder

Attempted murder is the most serious form of aggravated assault and, other than murder, the most serious crime to occur in the city each year. The following is a chronological listing of attempted murder in 1996:

First Quarter

January 7 at the 200 block of Washington Street (Area 4): An area resident reported hearing shots fired. Narcotics and blood were found at the scene of the shooting, and a wounded victim was later discovered in a Boston hospital.

 

January 24 at the 200 block of Broadway (Area 4): Two male acquaintances were drinking together in an apartment when a fight erupted, resulting in a knifing of one of the men.

 

February 2 at the 300 block of Rindge Avenue (North Cambridge): A Cambridge man was arrested for shooting a male acquaintance in the hip, thigh, and stomach.

 

February 5 at the 600 block of Main Street (Area 4): Two male acquaintances from Cambridge became involved in an argument; one grabbed a machete from his car and chased the other down the street, hitting him in the head and neck.

 

February 25 in Harvard Square (West Cambridge): A Malden man was stabbed in the back in an unprovoked attack by an elderly Dorchester woman.

 

March 14 on Jackson Street (North Cambridge): A Cambridge Police Officer, assisting a Cambridge Hospital Psychiatric Unit employee, was stabbed in the chest by a Cambridge woman wielding a 14-inch dagger. The officer's badge deflected the blow.

 

March 16 on Oxford Avenue (Area 4): A Cambridge woman was found strangled and unconscious in her apartment. Her boyfriend was later arrested and charged.

 

March 29 on Green Street (Cambridgeport): Two Green Street residents found a Cambridge man in their kitchen. They chased him out the door; a brief struggle ensued; one victim was stabbed in the ear, the other in the forearm.

 

Second Quarter

April 6 at the 200 block of Otis Street (East Cambridge): A female resident was beaten in the head to unconsciousness by her live-in boyfriend.

 

April 20 at the 100 block of Putnam Avenue (Riverside): The victim's boyfriend tried to smother her with a pillow.

 

May 7 on River Street (Riverside): A domestic argument escalated into a physical assault. The victim was beaten unconscious by her boyfriend.

 

May 8 at the Cambridgeside Galleria (East Cambridge): A Somerville juvenile was persuaded to "step outside" to settle an argument with two other juveniles. Once outside the mall, one of the suspects pulled a gun and shot the victim in the chest and back.

 

May 25 at the 1100 block of Cambridge Street (Inman/Harrington): The victim was sitting at a table in a club when a Cambridge man approached him from behind and stabbed him in the neck with a pocket knife.

 

Third Quarter

August 8 at Sidney & Green Streets (Cambridgeport): A security officer asked a homeless man to leave his client's property; in response, the homeless man knocked him to the ground and strangled the security guard unconscious with his own necktie.

 

August 21 on Columbia Street (Area 4): Two Cambridge juveniles were stabbed during a gang fight. A juvenile suspect was arrested.

 

August 31 on Western Avenue (Riverside): In a fight between two homeless people, the victim was struck in the head with a blunt object and suffered head trauma.

 

September 21 at the Cambridgeside Galleria (East Cambridge): An argument between two friends in a mall store became violent; one woman stabbed the other in the chest. The assailant was arrested at the scene.

 

September 26 on Cardinal Medeiros Avenue (Inman/Harrington): In fight between two male juveniles, one was stabbed in the stomach.

 

Fourth Quarter

October 13 on River Street (Cambridgeport): In a mysterious situation on the street, witnesses heard gunfire, a Somerville man checked into a Cambridge hospital with a stab wound in his back, and a Cambridge man entered a Boston hospital with a wound in his side.

 

December 14 at First & Thorndike Streets (East Cambridge): In a domestic argument, a Somerville man tried to run over a Roxbury woman with his car.

 

Geographic Breakdown of Assaults

Since domestic assaults and assaults among acquaintances dominate the percentages, the crime naturally registers high in areas that have a high residential population. These neighborhoods include Area 4, Cambridgeport, and North Cambridge. The total for Cambridgeport is boosted by drunken assaults in or near the neighborhood bars, and the statistic for East Cambridge includes a number of juvenile fights near the mall. Except for East Cambridge and Cambridge Highlands, each neighborhood shared in portion of the significant 18 percent decline in aggravated assaults.

Assault Classifications

Domestic Assaults declined both in number and percentage in 1996-in 1995, they totaled 142 or 30 percent of the assault statistic. At 26 percent, it still accounts for the largest portion of aggravated assaults, followed by traffic and parking related assaults (16 percent), juvenile or gang fights (14 percent) and unprovoked incidents (11 percent).

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