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A man has been charged with assault after allegedly threatening protesters with an axe at a demonstration in Harvard Square last month, according to court documents.
Matthew C. Freeman, a 40-year-old man from Billerica, was arraigned in Cambridge District Court last week on charges of assault with a dangerous weapon — as well as a civil rights violation, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations. Freeman pleaded not guilty to all charges, according to court documents.
The charges stem from an altercation at a pro-Palestine protest on August 10, when Freeman drove his vehicle towards a crowd of nearly 200 protesters walking down Massachusetts Ave. near the center of Harvard Square. He allegedly stopped his car next to two of the protesters and threw open his car door, later threatening to kill the protesters with an axe, according to a police report.
A video, which the Palestinian Youth Movement’s Boston chapter posted to Instagram shortly after the protest, also shows Freeman calling the protesters “Nazis” and shouting homophobic slurs from inside of his vehicle.
But police said that they did not see the axe themselves, despite police presence at the demonstrations. Instead, they relied on statements from witnesses.
The police report names one victim, Fawaz Abusharkh, who is Palestinian, and notes that no other victims have come forward.
Freeman said that he was “in fear for my life” when contacted by the police about the incident, according to the police report. James M. Peterson, Freeman’s lawyer, did not respond to a request for comment about his client’s altercation.
CAIR — a Muslim civil advocacy organization — is representing Abusharkh in the case. CAIR Legal Director Barbara J. Dougan wrote in a Thursday press release that the group was “pleased that the Middlesex County District Attorney recognized this violent incident for what it was and charged Freeman accordingly.”
The incident was investigated initially as an assault, but CAIR “urged the police and prosecutors” to recognize the altercation as a hate crime.
“This man’s rage was off the charts. When he stopped his car and waved an axe at us, threatening to kill us, I truly feared that he would hurt someone,” Abusharkh wrote in the press release. “This kind of dangerous behavior needs to be taken very seriously.”
CAIR wrote that Freeman now faces two felony counts of assault with a dangerous weapon — one for the car door and one for the axe — and a misdemeanor civil rights violation. Court documents obtained by The Crimson only detailed one assault charge.
This is not the first time that Freeman has been in court. In 2007, he was charged with aggravated assault after kicking and stomping on a man in Georgia, according to the Boston Globe.
Freeman was released on his personal recognizance and ordered to stay away from Abusharkh, according to court documents. He will appear for his next hearing on October 15.
—Staff writer Laurel M. Shugart can be reached at laurel.shugart@thecrimson.com. Follow them on X @laurelmshugart.
