Police arrest suspect in assault
Three other men being sought in alleged hate crime
Two victims' quick thinking led police to arrest a suspect in connection with a hate crime in the South End earlier this week, according to police and one of the victims.
In the early hours Sunday, four people - three males and one female - were on their way home from a nightclub when they were assaulted on Columbus Avenue by four males, police said.
Officers made the first arrest yesterday: Fabio Brandao, 28, of Framingham, who will be arraigned Tuesday in Boston Municipal Court, police spokesman David Estrada said.
Brandao is charged with assault and battery with a deadly weapon but further charges may follow. Estrada said the case remains under investigation.
Two numbers listed for Fabio Brandao were disconnected.
The assault Sunday began after the suspects' white
One of the victims, a 23-year-old Jamaica Plain resident named Jenna, who did not want her last name used because other suspects are still at large, said that when she got between the men and her friends, hoping to defuse the situation, one of the suspects punched her in the face.
Soon, police said, Jenna was on the ground, one of her friends had suffered a gash above his right eye, and a third had fled to Massachusetts Avenue, bleeding from the scalp.
Jeff, another victim of the assault who did not want his last name used, said that as the vehicle carrying the attackers pulled away, he and Jenna repeated the license plate number to the 911 dispatcher.
"We just said it over and over again," he said.
When police arrived, an officer found a cellphone on the ground that did not belong to any of the victims. Police would not disclose how they located Brandao.
"Now that they have someone in custody they can show the city of Boston that hate crimes won't be tolerated," Jeff, 24, of the South End, said of police. "There are still three more out there, but hopefully this guy leads us to the others."
Jenna said she had not heard about the arrest and breathed a sigh of relief when told.
"That's awesome. I feel so much better," she said.
Jeff said both the other victims have been released from Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and have since moved to Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Both had planned to leave Boston, Jeff said, but after the attack, one moved up the date of his relocation.
"He had stitches," Jeff said. "He just couldn't be in Boston."
Jenna said police have asked her and Jeff to continue aiding in the investigation of the attack, which she called "random."
"They caught this guy," she said, "so maybe now he can answer some questions." 