NEWS IN BRIEF: Grad Student Assaulted Outside Om Restaurant, Punched in Mouth, iPhone Taken

A Harvard graduate student was assaulted by an unarmed man on Winthrop Street Monday night, according to the Cambridge Police Department public log.

The incident occurred at approximately 11:50 p.m. outside of Om Restaurant.

Ray Tovmasyan, a management student at Faculty of Arts and Sciences, reported to the police that upon leaving Grendel’s Den, an unknown white male accosted him and asked him for a cigarette. The individual then punched Tovmasyan in the mouth and attempted to take his bag.

“I went outside and saw them fighting in front of Om,” said Nick, a Grendel’s Den employee who did not give his full name. “A girl then called the police.”

Tovmasyan fought back during the altercation and eventually the individual ran away.

“It was a real fight,” Tovmasyan said. “Today I couldn’t even open my mouth.”

The police log reported that the suspect stole the victim’s iPod, but in an interview yesterday, Tovmasyan said that he later recovered what was actually his iPhone on the street, and only after giving information to the police.

The incident is one of five unarmed robberies that were reported to the CPD on Monday.

“The case is currently being investigated by Cambridge Police,” said the CPD spokesperson Frank T. Pasquarello.

Tovmasyan described the attacker as a man in his forties with blue eyes and short hair.

“He wasn’t dressed like a student, no stereotypes,” he said.

The number of robberies on or near the campus has remained stable from 2005 to 2007, according to the statistics on the Harvard University Police Department Web site.

—MICHAL LABIK