A fatal shooting took place early Saturday at Broadway and Norfolk Street, the northeast corner of Sennott Park in The Port neighborhood of Cambridge. It’s the third gunfire incident of the year in the city, and the first death.
The victim was identified by authorities as Xavier Bautista, 32, of Cambridge, a Public Works employee for the city.
Police believe he was shot shortly before 4:30 a.m.
A 911 call “a few minutes before 5:30 a.m. Saturday” led police, fire and ProEMS to the scene, where they found Bautista lying with “blood around him,” according to scanner reports.
Paramedics from the Cambridge Fire Department declared Bautista dead on the scene at 5:33 a.m., police public information officer Robert Reardon said. “It was apparent that the victim had suffered a gunshot wound,” a department press release said.
A remembrance of Bautista and comment on the violence was issued later Saturday by city manager Yi-An Huang and mayor Sumbul Siddiqui, who said they were “heartbroken” to hear of the death.
“‘Xavier Bautista was a valued colleague and beloved by his family and friends. We extend our deepest condolences to those who knew and loved him. This is a tremendous loss, and our entire city grieves alongside his family, friends, and coworkers,” the officials said. “Gun violence has absolutely no place in our community. We are unwavering in our commitment to keeping Cambridge safe, and we will do everything in our power to support the investigation and ensure accountability.”
Though gunfire is relatively rare in Cambridge, the city has a history of it around the Fourth of July weekend: at 2:55 p.m. July 3, 2022, in Central Square; at 1 a.m. July 2, 2023, in The Port, when a car was left aflame at the scene; at 10:05 p.m. July 3, 2024, again in The Port but at Greene-Rose Heritage Park; and last year at 11:15 p.m. July 4, in Central Square outside the Middle East nightclub complex. In those incidents, police found no victims with gunfire wounds. In three of these four years, there had been as many as a half-dozen gunfire incidents by this time. (The exception is 2023, when there was also three at this point.)
An investigation into the circumstances of Saturday’s death includes the Cambridge Police Department, Middlesex District Attorney’s Office and Massachusetts State Police detectives assigned to the DA’s office, according to a police press release. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call police at (617) 349-3300.
The call about the shooting came in at 5:26 a.m., Reardon said. Scanner reports show first responders were on the scene just one minute later.
This is the first gunfire incident in which the ShotSpotter gunfire-listening technology wouldn’t be a factor. City councillors voted May 18 for the city manager to turn get rid of the technology, including “to direct the police department to stop using ShotSpotter, including turning off and physically removing the surveillance tools no later than 90 days and remove its microphones citywide within 90 days.” The vote was 48 days ago.
Reardon said the system is no longer in use or available to Cambridge police. “We don’t even have the capability to log in or the capability to review if it were up,” he said.
This post was updated July 4, 2026, with the identity of the victim and with comment from city officials.
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