Police responded to a report of a stabbing outside the 7-Eleven in Somerville’s Davis Square just after 6 a.m. Thursday, according to scanner reports.
A witness said she was inside the minimart and saw the stabber and victim outside in an altercation, police said. The people involved in the incident were believed “to be known to one another,” according to a statement later in the evening from mayor Jake Wilson.
Officers looked immediately afterward for a man who “could still be in the area” – a tall man in a baseball cap, brown jacket and blue jeans – but could not find a suspect. Early reports from the scene of a violent incident or disaster are often garbled and can turn out later to be wrong.
The victim’s injuries were not life-threatening, Wilson said on social media.
“First and foremost, my thoughts are with them and wishes for their full recovery,” Wilson said. “I am extremely upset for the victim and the community. Our public spaces have to be safe and welcoming for everyone.”
The 7-Eleven is at 4 College Ave., bordering part of the brick plaza known as Statue Park, which is between College Avenue and Holland Street. Statue Park and the grassy expanse called Seven Hills Park, which is behind the MBTA red line headhouse on Holland Street, have become known as resting places and camps for the unhoused over the past couple of years, and have drawn complaints of public drug use and occasional violence. A previous stabbing took place Aug. 18 in the Davis Square MBTA station.
“We know residents are frustrated and concerned, and rightly so. We launched new interventions, protocols and increased patrol efforts this spring, and we are fully committed to making sure people start to feel a noticeable impact of these efforts this summer and beyond,” Wilson said.
Police shut down Holland Street from Buena Vista Road into Davis Square at around 8:20 a.m., according to scanner reports, apparently so detectives could search for evidence. A call went out for a Public Works staffer to bring a key to trash barrels in the area, and the roadway was closed long for police to request that buses be rerouted. The Health Department was summoned at 9::05 a.m. for a report of blood at the T station on Holland Street, though it was not made clear if the blood was related to the stabbing.
Wilson’s statement referred to police “investigating an assault with a knifelike weapon.” A city spokesperson, Grace Munns, told The Boston Globe in an email that police were “investigating an assault with an edged weapon.” According to police scanner reports moments after the stabbing, a witness “didn’t have a description of a weapon, but it’s definitely a knife.”
Holland Street was reopened shortly after 9:30 a.m.
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