Student Groped on Holyoke Street

Another female student was groped over the weekend, marking the seventh indecent assault near Harvard Square in the last three months, according to an advisory released yesterday by the Harvard University Police Department (HUPD).

A graduate student reported to the Cambridge Police Department (CPD) yesterday that she was inappropriately grabbed Friday night at about 8:30 p.m. while walking on Holyoke Street near 24 Mt. Auburn Street.

CPD spokesperson Frank D. Pasquarello said an unidentified male, pushing a mountain bicycle, approached the victim from the opposite direction, grabbed her and fled on his bicycle.

Although he said that he does not believe that all the seven sexual assaults are related, Pasquarello said it was possible that this groping was connected to the an incident that occurred on Jan. 10.

In that indecent assault, a white male, wearing a winter hat, groped a female undergraduate’s buttocks while riding his bike in Harvard Yard.

The victim of last weekend’s incident could only identify her attacker’s height and that he was wearing a hat.

“She just gave us a brief description because she was unable to see his face,” Pasquarello said.

He said unless CPD makes an arrest, it is unlikely the suspect will be caught based on the description alone.

According to the advisory, HUPD is responding to this incident by increasing both uniformed and plainclothes officers on duty after sunset and having those officers patrol routes that students frequent.

The advisory noted that this latest incident is a reminder that despite the Jan. 20 arrest of Harvard custodian Geremias Cruz Ramos for two of the reported assaults, the community “must be vigilant at all times.”

The alert sent out yesterday marks the initiation of a system of community advisory dissemination. HUPD now e-mails messages directly to students, rather than passing along information through senior tutors and freshman deans, said HUPD spokesperson Steven G. Catalano.

Under the previous system, these administrators would not consistently alert students after they had received the advisories, and some Houses would never receive them.

—Staff writer Hana R. Alberts can be reached at alberts@fas.harvard.edu.