Police seek man for attempted rape at Mass. College of Art
By adamg - 11/29/10 - 7:54 pm
Boston Police report they are looking for a man who tried to rape a woman at a Mass. Art building at 621 Huntington Ave. on Friday afternoon:
[A]n African-American male, between 25-35 years old, weighing approximately 250 lbs, wearing a blue hoodie, jeans and sneakers approached her from behind, assaulted her physically and attempted a sexual assault. A struggle ensued and the suspect fled.
Anybody with information can contact the sexual-assault unit by calling 617-343-4400 or the anonymous tip line by calling 800-494-TIPS or texting TIP to CRIME (27463).
Location
Javascript is required to view this map.
Comments
Odd circumstances
You can only imagine all the security alerts we've gotten about this at WIT, but an interesting fact about this assault is that it happened on the 6th floor. She was the only one in the studio at the time.
This brings up a ton of questions including did the assailant know the victim was up there and does the MassArt tower need better security control? (yes)
It's just a very random attack, as this guy walked in, took an elevator to the 6th floor and tried to rape this girl. Thank you for posting this though.
MassArt security
When I was there we asked for better security, but the campus police always claimed it would be too costly or they could be accused of violating somebody's civil liberties for patrolling around and asking for IDs. They also have the caf and the bookstore in that building, and they didn't want their foot traffic interrupted.
The result was that basically anybody could walk into the locked back door by waiting for somebody to come out. Although this guy looks like he came right in entrance on Huntington Ave. where there should be a guard. Once he got in, he could walk through all the studios unchallenged until he found what he was looking for.
Tower's Layout & Official MassArt PS Statement
Kennedy (where the bookstore and caf are - have you seen the reno btw?) actually has a nice security desk front and center on the Huntington entrance. The assault actually happened in Tower, not Kennedy, where the security desk is up a flight of stairs and anyone can bypass it by going down to the LG level and getting an elevator.
Here's the official security alert from MassArt:
oh you're right
I didn't read the report thoroughly, I just went by the address.
Schools and businesses really
Schools and businesses really need to invest in better cameras. A security system is pretty useless when the image quality makes it nearly impossible to identify the perpetrator. Being able to clearly identify the criminal in imagery is just as important as being able to see how the crime went down.
Poor communications
So Mass Art sent students an e-mail after the attack - even though they have the capability to text students in an emergency. So the attacker is still roaming free and, if folks didn't check their e-mails, they wouldn't even know.
Can't believe the security is so lax that the guy strolled right in. Unacceptable.