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Harvard issues community alert after woman reports incident

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 29, 2009 05:26 PM

By Globe Staff

The Harvard University Police Department today issued a community advisory after a female Harvard employee reported that a man tried to put a string around her throat as she walked near the campus Tuesday night.

The incident is being investigated by the Cambridge police who today released a copy of the initial police report filed after the woman spoke with officers about the attack. The woman told police she was walking on Grant Street shortly before 11 p.m. Tuesday.

The woman told police a man Уcame down Athens Street and circled behind her while she was walking on Grant Street.ТТ The man began "putting his arms across her shoulders while holding a string between his hands.ТТ

The woman ducked below the string and ran off, the report states. УThe suspect never said anything and used no further force on her other than putting his hands on her shoulders with the string in hands,ТТ according to the Cambridge police report. УVictim further states she was not injured just scared.ТТ

Alexa Manocchio, spokeswoman for the Cambridge police, said the investigation is ongoing, but no arrests have been made.

The incident had some similarities to an attack on a woman on the Harvard campus in May 2008 where a man tried to put a wire around the womanТs throat, but failed when the woman kicked him and then fled. No one has been arrested in that case.