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Harvard ends campus safety alert after knife suspect detained near Weeks Footbridge
Harvard lifted a shelter-in-place order Wednesday after campus police detained a person who had reportedly brandished a knife and fled across campus. The search moved from South Street toward Harvard Square and the athletic fields.
Harvard University lifted a shelter-in-place order Wednesday after police detained a person with a knife following a chase across campus and nearby Cambridge, the university said in a series of alerts.
The first alert, posted at 11:41 a.m., reported that a person with a knife was on South Street and heading toward JFK Street. Harvard urged people in the area to shelter indoors and avoid the location.
Five minutes later, the university said Harvard and Cambridge police were searching near JFK Street and JFK Park for a man who had brandished a knife and fled on a bicycle. By 11:58 a.m., the search had shifted to the area of Brattle Street.
At 12:17 p.m., Harvard said officers approached the suspect at Cambridge Common, but the person ran toward Harvard Square. Officers pursued the suspect across a bridge toward the university’s athletic fields. Six minutes later, the university reported that campus police had detained the suspect near Weeks Footbridge and that the person was in custody. The shelter-in-place order was then lifted.
No further information about the suspect or the incident was immediately available.