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Summer Student Assaulted in Thayer

Altercation Between Residents Leads to Police Involvement; No Arrests Made

Police responded Saturday night to a call that a group of students were harassing and accosting a summer school student in Thayer Hall.

The student who made the call said yesterday that he feared the other summer school students gathered outside his door would assault him, and so called the police.

But when the three police officers arrived on the scene, the students outside the caller's door told them that the caller, a male, had assaulted a female student who also lives in Thayer. According to the police, the students said they only wanted to speak with the caller to find out why he had done what he did.

According to David A. Friedberg, also a summer school student and Thayer resident, the female student was sitting outside Thayer with him removing her roller blades when the male student approached.

The male walked up to them, Friedberg said, and "while he was looking at me, he hits [her] in the face, close-fisted."

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Police said the male student had slapped the female, and then proceeded into Thayer.

According to witnesses, the female student walked into Thayer shortly after and encountered the caller in the doorway of his room.

According to Arthur L.L. Santiago, another summer school student and Thayer resident, the male and female student put up their hands in what appeared to Santiago to be a play-fight.

But after the female student punched the male, Santiago said, "that's when he kind of snapped."

According to Santiago, the male struck the female student in the head and then kneed her in the chest.

Santiago said Friedberg, who was also in the hall, grabbed the male student while the female student ran into a neighboring room.

The caller then wrestled Friedberg out of his doorway, Friedberg said, and locked him out.

Friedberg and Santiago said they did not know why the fight began, but Friedberg said the female student had slapped the caller last week when he yelled at a group of students in his room.

Although no arrests were made Saturday, the male student, the female student, Friedberg and Santiago will appear Friday at 9:30 a.m. at Cambridge District Court for a hearing.

Assault on Mt. Auburn

Harvard police also recently arrested a man on Mt. Auburn Street for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

According to Riley, Officer John O'Kane noticed a white man fleeing down the street into the Holyoke Arcade early Wednesday morning. He approached the scene and noticed a crying woman, who reported that the man had been throwing rocks and dirt at her, Riley said.

The woman said she had met the man earlier that evening in a bar. They had an argument and began a fight that spilled over onto Mt. Auburn, Riley said.

The woman showed O'Kane some fresh abrasions on her knees, elbows and hip, but declined immediate medical attention, the chief said.

O'Kane and several other officers approached the man, who was hiding in an alcove in the arcade. But after giving the police a false name, the man became belligerent and was arrested for assault and battery.

When the officers put the man in the back of the car, "he started banging his head against the window and kicked the rear window of the cruiser out"--a fairly uncommon occurrence, Riley said.

After giving the police several false names, the man was booked under John Doe, although he was later identified as David L. Jewers of Somerville, Riley said.

If convicted of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, Jewers would face up to 10 years in prison, Riley said

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