Student Spars With Shuttle Driver

A shuttle bus driver and an undergraduate were involved in a brawl on the pavement in front of Currier House Saturday evening, witnesses said, in what has led to a Harvard University Police Department (HUPD) investigation which, as of yesterday, had not resulted in any arrests.

“Officers determined that there was an altercation between a shuttle bus driver and a student over the driver refusing the student’s entry to the bus,” HUPD spokesman Steven G. Catalano wrote in an e-mail. “Officers determined that two different persons were assaulted during the dispute.”

“At this time the incident is under investigation so we are not going to comment further,” he added.

Rosa E. Beltran ’08, who said she was on a parked shuttle nearby at the time of the incident, said, “I heard a racket [and] when I looked out the window...I saw the white-haired driver holding a young guy by his shoulder.”

“Then this guy pushed [the driver] on the sidewalk and...ran into Currier,” she added.

Another witness, M. Aidan Kelly ’08, said he also saw the aftermath of what had appeared to be a physical confrontation.

“I saw an older guy who was a shuttle driver being pulled back from a big guy, who was also being pulled back by a bunch of guys,” said Kelley, who is a Crimson associate magazine chair.

He added that the student was then dragged into Currier by a group of students.

HUPD officers were dispatched to the scene around 6:20 p.m. that Saturday, according to Catalano.

Beltran said that HUPD arrived after the driver of the bus she was on told a student to call the police.

“I’d say pretty much all the students were on the football team,” Kelly said of the 30-some present at the scene. The football team’s annual barbecue was held in the Currier courtyard Saturday night.

Many people were carrying kegs or beer-pong tables, Kelly said.

The shuttle services dispatcher on duty Sunday night said he was unable to identify the driver involved, and the operations manager of Harvard Passanger Transport was unavailable for comment.

The Harvard University Football Office could not be reached for comment yesterday, and football players who were contacted said that they were not aware of the incident.

“I don’t know anything about it,” said Daniel C. Brown ’07, a wide receiver on the team.

—Staff writer John R. Macartney can be reached at jmacartn@fas.harvard.edu.