Brookline Car Chase Ends Outside of MAC

Brookline Police officers arrested a suspect outside the Malkin Athletic Center yesterday, following a car chase through Brookline and Cambridge that ended when a Harvard senior and two other passersby tackled the suspect.

Wilson Hunt, 57, of Roslindale was charged with armed assault with intent to murder for grabbing the gun of a police officer as the officer tried to arrest him. He is also charged with resisting arrest, failing to stop for a police officer, operating a vehicle to endanger, speeding more than 20 miles per hour over the limit, and failing to stop for a red light.

Police first tried to stop Hunt at the corner of Kent and Beacon streets in Brookline, where he was speeding at around 70 miles per hour, according to Lieutenant John D. O'Leary of the Brookline Police Department (BPD).

When Hunt failed to stop, officer Robert Lawlor chased the car along Powell Street, Freeman Street, Amory Street, Dummer Street, Commonwealth Avenue, over B.U. Bridge, and to Memorial Drive in Cambridge, where Lawlor lost track of the automobile.

At around 1:40 p.m., Lawlor caught up with Hunt on Mill Street, right outside of Winthrop House, where Hunt was abandoning his car. Lawlor tried to arrest Hunt, but a scuffle ensued, during which Hunt made repeated attempts to "grab the officer's gun out of the holster," O'Leary said.

Hunt escaped and ran two more blocks before being arrested. The arrest was made with assistance from Brian C. Gatten '01.

"I heard somebody yell 'Stop that man!'" Gatten said. "There was this policeman chasing this guy in a shirt and tie. There were two other guys walking directly in front of the MAC in his path, and they stepped in front of him and grabbed him. By that time, I had crossed the street and grabbed onto the guy," he said.

"We kicked his feet out from under him. Then the policeman cuffed him and called for backup," Gatten said.

Gatten, a resident of Eliot House, said that the police officer had his nightstick out when making the arrest.

One witness to the arrest, Zoe R. Cooreder, who works in the Square, said Hunt tried to escape again after he had been subdued by Lawlor.

"After [Hunt] was handcuffed, the police officer helped him get up and he [Hunt] tried to get away again," she said. "A man in a suit blocked [Hunt's] attempt at escape and the two men wrestled him to the ground again."

O'Leary said the second escape attempt was not listed in the police report.

He said the suspect attempted to escape later at the police station.

Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) officers assisted Brookline Police units in locating the suspect, but were "not involved in the arrest whatsoever," according to Peggy A. McNamara, HUPD spokesperson.

Three or four Cambridge Police Department officers responded to a call for assistance from the BPD, but arrived on the scene after the arrest had been made, said Cambridge Police Sergeant Lester J. Sullivan.

Hunt was "transported to [Beth Israel] hospital for psychiatric evaluation" after the arrest, O'Leary said. Pending discharge from the psychiatric program, he will likely be arraigned in court this morning at 9 a.m.

The car, a white, Subaru Legacy, was towed by police to an impounding lot. It was not listed as stolen, said Paul J. Cullinare, a BPD officer.

Hunt, who had no prior police record, could not be reached for comment.