Saturday, May 16, 2015

Slow Saturday Special: Common Attack

"Photo taken by Common attack victim leads to arrests" by Aneri Pattani and Travis Andersen Globe Correspondent | Globe Staff  May 08, 2015

Two Dorchester teenagers were part of a larger group that allegedly attacked a man and a woman on Boston Common on Thursday night, according to police and one of the victims.

Officer Rachel McGuire, a Boston Police Department spokeswoman, said a 16-year-old Dorchester boy was with a group of other juveniles near Frog Pond when he allegedly assaulted a 23-year-old man at about 9:30 p.m.

The man was walking with a 27-year-old woman, who took a picture of the assailant on her cellphone, McGuire said. After the woman snapped the photo, a 15-year-old Dorchester girl emerged from the group of teenagers and allegedly attacked her and tried to steal the phone, McGuire said.

The victims escaped with minor injuries and called 911, and later showed police the cellphone pictures of the attackers, police said. Officers found the two Dorchester teens nearby and took them into custody.

One of the victims, a Cambridge woman who declined to be named for fear of retaliation, said she and her male companion had just met to begin tutoring one another in Korean and English, and they were about to part company when the first attack occurred.

Eventually, she said, police arrived. “My phone has the evidence; it’s the only way I can contact anyone for help. And it has my whole life on it,” the woman said she was thinking.

The Cambridge woman said her mother is Japanese, and she contacted her male companion, who speaks Korean, because she wanted to learn other Asian languages. She, in turn, is helping him practice his English.

She said they plan to meet up again soon.

“We’re actually planning on meeting in a couple days over a drink to discuss what happened,” she said....

I guess we can think of the kids as matchmakers then.

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