Cambridge police officers arrested an unidentified man early Tuesday morning after he allegedly broke into Bow Street Flowers.

The arrest was made on the corner of Bow Street and Massachusetts Avenue at 1:15 a.m., in front of the Bow and Arrow Pub.

Witnesses said the suspect was a 5'6" white male with brown hair, wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a case of beer.

Three Harvard students who were standing on a corner of Bow and Mt. Auburn--Daniel C. Allen '97, Akarin Gaw '96 and Matthew T. Sevick '95--said they first heard a loud crashing sound which they took for a car accident.

Police arrived shortly afterwards, notified by the store's silent alarm system.

The witnesses, who are all Crimson editors, told police they had noticed a man walking out of the store's doorway several seconds after the crash.

Exit Stage Left

The officers questioned the man and went inside to search the store, the witnesses said.

The suspect joined a group of students walking along Mt. Auburn Street and then left the scene.

"We were a little concerned that the person who we assumed committed the crime was getting away while the police officer was talking to the store owner inside," Allen said yesterday.

"So I went into the store and we suggested to the officer that he follow the guy, and then we directed him to where this guy was," he said.

Allen said the police officer said that he did not suspect the man in question.

The man had been standing outside the flower shop when the police arrived, the students said.

"But we pulled him out of the store and directed him to where the guy had gone," Allen said.

The officers stopped the man in front of the Bow and Arrow Pub and questioned him, according to Gaw.

"They couldn't find anything incriminating on him, but they arrested him because we were eyewitnesses," Allen said.

The store owner refused to comment yesterday.