Current mood:	distressed
Entry tags:	crime

Assaulted on Bike Path to Davis Sq. T-Stop
I created an LJ account specifically so i could alert this community about my being assaulted by a group of 18-23 year olds on the bike path between Willow and the Davis Sq. T-Stop.

This happened Thursday, Aug 14 at about 7:30PM. It was still light out and there were lots of people all around, and sadly, nobody walking by stopped to get involved.

I'm convinced I've seen this same group of punks hanging out in the square itself on a Friday night a couple weeks back -- I recall they were randomly screaming out and harassing people in front of JP Licks.

If they are here to stay in our community, it's alarming that they are getting progressively more dangerous and I'd like to see if anyone else has had a run in with them.

I have the name and address of the one of them I was able to identify from the police officer I summoned. He lives disturbingly nearby.

The cops, while very helpful, were unable to make an arrest tonight since it was a "simple assault" and pretty much he-said/he-said. They gave me the guy's contact info in case I wanted to press charges.

The guy that struck me in the head was clearly intoxicated, and since both my girlfriend and I walk around davis square and the path, we're both just hoping that the group forgets my face and leaves us alone (i.e. I wont follow up w/ a complaint at the courthouse).

The officer said about 20 minutes before I was harassed, there was another attack by what appeared to be the same group of thugs further down the path towards Minuteman where a person was told "Would you rather be stabbed or shot?" They stole his iPhone.

My encounter happened like this:

I was walking towards the square to meet my girlfriend for dinner. Up ahead, there were a group of guys sort of hanging out in the middle of the path and being loud. I didn't think anything of it since there were tons of people all around. As i was walking past them, a tall buzz-cut guy (the drunk one) rolled his bike sideways across the path to get in my way. As I was stepping around them, he said something like, "Do you have any bells?" (or "bills?") I said no, and tried to get around him. All of a sudden, I heard him yell "Pussy!" and felt him strike the back of my head.

I turned around, got a real good look at him and his buddies, and kind-of stunned, said something like, "What?"

That was my mistake. I should have started running.

Suddenly, his friends started egging him on and they all started moving towards me. Flight or fight? Easy choice since it was 6 young guys against me. Run.

The guy was fast and caught up with me by the dumpster at the rite-aid parking lot. He was yelling stuff at me and then one of his buddies came up behind me and started saying, "You got any money? Give me your money!"

Drunk guy grabbed my shirt, knocked the side of my head a couple of times, hard enough to bend my glasses. We tussled for what felt like 10-15 seconds and he got a couple more strikes on my face. I must say, i was more confused than terrified at that point. Somehow i manged to wiggle away and I ran towards the T Stop. The guy followed me on his bike yelling out, "Pussy!" over and over again. This is when my fear caught up to my blood rush, because this guy was not giving up even though I was running towards a crowded area.

My girlfriend was waiting at the stop and I yelled at her to get inside and call the cops. She and I stayed inside the t stop and this guy was just hovering back and forth out by the bike racks yelling but eventually goes away.

Cops get there in just a few minutes and go investigate where I was attacked... the guys were long gone.

So we gave our story and chalked it up to random mugging attempt. My adrenaline was going strong so we decided to just go home. First we stopped at the convenience store across the street from the t-stop by jp licks to grab a coke.

As we were leaving, my blood ran cold as I saw these guys congregated right outside the door. I immediately turned around and ushered my GF back inside. I thought they were waiting for me to exact revenge for calling the cops so I hid in the back corner. One of them came inside, had a long chat with the shopkeep and slid some money across the counter. The police arrived and actually detained the drunk guy (since he was the only one for which i could really provide a description... all his buddies scattered, of course)

They asked a bunch of questions and were trying to find a legal way to arrest these guys since they were clearly the same batch that stole the iphone from another guy earlier. Unfortunately, the other victim identified a different person than I identified, so there was no way to make the connection and, hence, no arrests.

Incidentally, when the police asked the shopkeep about the guy that came in and chatted he denied that he ever saw those 20yr olds before. In fact, not only had he seen one of them for about 4-5 minutes before, but he accepted a wad of cash (hush money? Does that really happen?)

Regardless, I will never shop there again and encourage you not to either.

I further learned from the bike officer that these punks have claimed the corner in front of davis square and that store (sorry, I just moved here. I don't know the name, but it's right by jp licks on college ave) and are frequently there on weekend nights. The punchy one is white, about 5' 10", has a buzz-cut, and is loud.

So I'm not sure what I could have done differently to have avoided this, but I know I will run into these guys again if I ever want to enjoy davis square. So if I'm in the middle of being pummeled by one of them in broad daylight, I would like it if somebody would at least call 911 on my behalf.

Please be careful, don't wear your ipod on the trail, and be very aware of everything. If you have similar stories, specifically about these guys, please share.

Update: I filed a report, after all.